Hello friends! This Wednesday started out absolutely perfectly! Well, maybe not started out, but within the first hour it got fabulous. Getting out of bed at 5:45 this morning was no picnic because I stayed up too late working on my running playlist on my ipod. I finally got out of bed, was running late and then my stupid GPS did not give me correct directions and my phone wouldn’t work and blah blah blah. But finally about 10 minutes late, I met up with Kara at Kiwanis Park. Can you believe I actually needed my GPS to drive there? For some reason, I have never actually been the driver when going and I don’t pay attention. Ever.
Kara and I started out on our run around the park and my legs felt tiiiiired. Like lead. Maybe it was my interval run Sunday, followed by Monday’s hike, followed by spin yesterday? Also, there were several small hills throughout the park and this girl is used to flat flat flat. Although our duck filled lake route has some small inclines, these were definitely steeper. Kara and I both acknowledged that today was seeming super challenging, but I gave us a little pep talk (which I needed just as much as her) and realized that we were actually making pretty decent time. I said “I have a surprise for you, but we have to rock the end of our run for you to get it!” When we finished, I showed her this amazingness
My previous (and the only time I had ever actually done 4 miles before) 4 mile time was 40:58. Almost 2 whole minutes off!!!!
And the best part, I didn’t realize until later
We ran our 4th mile in 8:57!!!!!! I don’t think I have EVER run a sub 9 min mile before!!! I almost cried. I know I will most certainly cry when I cross that half marathon finish line. I know I’ve said it over and over again, but I just never imagined that I would be able to do this. I was the kid in PE who walked at the back of the pack when we were supposed to run the mile. I told myself for so many years that I couldn’t do things. I so believe that it is all mental, and that we can do anything if we want it badly enough. I need a shirt for the race that says “I can do anything.” Nothing makes me feel better than those 4 words.
Now onto the super fun part (as much fun as wanting to do at a 9 min pace is, food is much more fun)! On our last long run, we ran by Bosa Donuts.
It smelled so freaking good that we wanted to just stop right there and get a donut before finishing our run, but we knew that if we stopped, we would never stop again that wasn’t a good idea. We did promise ourselves that eventually we would go try a donut though. I honestly cannot tell you the last time I went out for a donut. We walked in and I was so overwhelmed I didn’t even know where to start.
Today is Mona’s birthday (YAY!!! Happy birthday my amazing friend!! I love you!!!) so we were bringing a box of donuts to Starbucks with us. We carefully selected 12 donuts (who has a hard time choosing 12? Apparently us) including what ended up being my favs: blueberry cake and buttermilk. It smelled so freaking amazing. Kara in all of her excitement exclaimed “We’re going to be consumed by donut air!!!!!” And we were. We left with this
So excited we could hardly contain ourselves
When we finally got to Starbucks, I got an other delicious iced coffee with sf vanilla and sf peppermint. Just like yesterday.
And when the line died down, we dug into the donut box! We wanted to sample lots of them, so we got plastic knives and went to town!
I took pretty small tastes of several of them, probably totaling about a whole donut all together. I was trying to keep it closer to half a donut. Maybe we’ll just pretend it was more like half 😉 After we dug in, the box looked like this
Mona with her birthday (and not just any birthday–21!!!) donut
While I was there, I had an unexpected visit with an old co-worker, as well as getting to see Bekki and Amelia and one of my favorite student mom’s, Beth!! Beth has the three loveliest girls on Earth and it is no surprise because she is totally amazing herself and any time I see her, she always makes me smile! Plus I hardly ever get to see Amelia and she makes my heart happy, and Bekki I just love. Amazing morning.
I also helped Kara set up her new blog!!!! “Ranting and Running” Go check it out!!!
EmilyInProgress says
I need a Kara (a friend to run with!) or I guess I need to move to Mesa/Tempe and just stalk you guys. I am always jealous you have such a good exercise friend!
And I think I need a donut… but I haven’t run yet today!
Ari @ Ari's Menu says
Emily, you are ALWAYS welcome with us! I know its not super close, but we get started early 🙂 7 mi on sat if you’d like to join!