Tonight's Run... 4 miles...

  What a day!  I'm back on the East Coast for a little bit and figured since I can't sleep tonight I'd update on my first real day back in my hometown(ish) area!
  My godchildren have been so great.  My 2nd oldest (he's 5) stayed up so he could see me when I got here.  He "surprised me" when I went upstairs to check on the little ones (10 months and 3 year old).  They are so adorable!  Both girls have already warmed up to me which makes me feel great since this is the first time I'm meeting the baby. : )
  I think I finally convinced my oldest godson (he's 17) to run with me this Thursday.  There's a local race and since I missed Oct and managed to schedule my flight out on the day I wanted to race (ugh!) I need to get this race in before I return home to OK.
  We did a "test run" tonight.  I was about two minutes behind Corey the entire time (for about a half mile or so) and then he suddenly disappeared.  I called his name out a few times while jogging in place but didn't get a response so I kept running up the street figuring eventually I'd run into him again.  Thankfully it was only 7pm when we were running.
  I ended up getting lost (as I always do in their neighborhood) and ran almost 4 miles by the time we found one another again!  As it turns out he'd ran towards the woods and I wasn't even going to attempt that in the dark and when I was blasting my music.  I kept running though - through the pain in my side and up the many hills I encountered.  It felt so good to be outside running again - reminded me of the nights I'd run with friends on campus - bundled up in my sports bra, tank top, underarmor, t-shirt and hoodie just to stay warm.  Gosh how I miss those days!
  We are going to do a quick 3 miler tomorrow night, take Wed off and race Thursday morning bright and early!  Then I told him our last run would be a 5 miler he ran all summer.  It's going to be hard for me but I'm up for the challenge I think.  I still can't believe I ran without stopping at all tonight.  I wanted to take a break at one point but two things stopped me - I know that when I stop sometimes it's harder for my body to be ok with keeping a good pace again and I didn't feel comfortable walking in a neighborhood I don't know very well.  Both things worked in my favor and I was able to show myself that I can run an entire 3.2 mile race.  Hopefully Thursday will be good for me and I'll be able to run the entire thing - which will be a big step.  I'm not setting a time goal - more just a "how far can I run before I need to rest" goal.  I usually make it to almost 2 miles in a race before I need to stop but I've been pushing myself harder these past months so we'll see how well I do!!
  Hopefully I will have an update soon. : )