Just for fun...

The last time I remember running the mile as fast as I could and being timed was in 6th grade at Truitt Junior High. I was in my PE class and really wanting to be in "athletics" and not PE in 7th grade. It was a REALLY big deal in my world. Well, one of the ways they tested you to see who made it into athletics was by making you go outside and run the mile. I came in second in my class with a time of 7:11. I'm really not sure how or why I remember that 15 years later, but I do. For some reason, getting into athletics was a really big deal to me.

Well, tonight, just for fun, Landon and I decided to run our 3 miles in 3 splits to see how fast we could run a mile--we first ran an 8:27 mile down to the track at the middle school in our neighborhood, rested for a bit and then lined up on the track. I felt like I was back in 6th grade, trying out for athletics all over again. We started our watched and took off. I kept up with Landon for the first, oh, 100 meters maybe, and then he left me in his dust. He did awesome, running a 6:40 mile. Wow. I came in a little after him, but I think absolutely as fast as I could--at 7:26. Only 15 seconds to shave off and I'll be back down to what my skinny 78 pound (not sure why I remember that, but we also had to get weighed as part of the try outs for athletics and that number is also burned into my brain) self ran at age 13. I think that's good, right? After all, I'm twice as old as I was then, practically middle aged...

We took a few minutes to catch our breath and then ran a 9 minute mile back home as the sun was setting. It was romantic. You know, aside from the fact that we were all sweaty and gross from running. And as we jogged into our driveway, Landon turned to me and said "good job babe. We just need to do that for 23 more miles and we'll make our marathon pace goal."

I wanted to cry.

Good thing the marathon's not until October.