See photos here because I don't want to steal any:
http://www.chinquapenntrail.org/photo-gallery.html
When I made it around the bend, there was a bridge that reminded me of the Trinity Mountain trail I do in BitGym. It really took my breath away to be walking in such a beautiful place in real life. Around each bend were little bridges and points of interest...it was really lovely! In order to do 5k, I had to walk the trail twice. On my second round, my son decided to join me. We saw two turtles swimming in the lake together. Then we saw a humongous speckled coy fish. We also saw the orange trumpet flowers that used to grow beside the marsh up in Maine. It was fun! He really loved the bridges and he was so proud to have done one lap that he said he wanted to go do the trail again twice (on another day because I couldn't handle 7k on this terrain). He's wearing my commemorative shirt tomorrow to brag about the walk and wants to do the next 5k with me.
With such beautiful scenery, it was easy for me to get past my anxieties. Of course I did have a few. First, I noticed that a lot of the runners were in much better shape than me. Most of them were also older, which left me no excuse. I secretly admired strong shoulder muscles, which is something I had never bothered to observe before. Towards the end of my first lap, I felt so bad for the poor woman in front of me. She was walking just as fast as me, yet it was the one panting like a mad cow just a few steady feet behind her. I wanted to huff up and pass her so that she didn't have to hear me pant, but I just couldn't go any faster than I was going. I was more than happy to have the kid join me for the second round, so that I could enjoy the view at his super slow pace.
Once we left the trail, I started to feel aches in new places. Instead of the bottom center of my back, now the middle of my back hurt. Instead of the balls of my feet hurting, now I started to feel a tiny ache of shin splints. The terrain was definitely not what I expected it to be. It was a tough trail. The kid and I want to go back. I'd love to take my parents to that covered picnic table to sit while the boy and I do two laps. I know I can get some really amazing fall photos on this trail. We definitely do plan to go back!
There's a zombie run in Greensboro on November 1st. Its a two mile paved street run. You get three strips of caution tape to wear on your waist and the zombies try to steal them like a game of touch football. I really want to play, but I don't think I can run 2 miles. I fiddled with geodistance and figured out the square around my block is .45 of a mile. If I can run 4 of those that'll equal about 2 miles.
I think what I'm going to do is start trying to jog a quarter of that square, then half, and work my way up to as much as I can without breaking anything. I already use the elliptical for over 10k, so jogging .13 of a kilometer isn't that bad of a place to start. Then I'll try to move on to .36, which would be the second bend of the block. If I can jog the two miles even at a slow pace by Halloween, I will sign up for the Zombie Run. I seriously doubt that'll happen, but I can still use the race as a motivator. I mean, there's always next year. I have even chosen a time to start - 10am, every other day. At 10am, all of the work people and busses have already been through. Anyone not going to work will still be asleep by that point. I figure this is also a cool temperature time of day as well. I think Monday, Wednesday, and Friday will be good running days and I can do my basement fitness on the days in between. I'm just a little afraid of shin splints, sprained ankles, and weird looks from my neighbors. I worry that I won't be able to jog ten feet and that I'll never be able to jog more than twenty feet no matter how hard I try. I worry that my iron deficiency will creep up on me again. I'm afraid of publicly viewable failure. He'll there was a time when I couldn't walk more than a mile, when 1.9 mph had me sweating in ten minutes. I am totally capable of physical progress. There's nothing to it but to do it, you know. I just need to do it.
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