6 Miles

Yesterday morning I set out to run my first 6 mile run. This is the farthest I have run so far since this is the first time I am training for something longer than a 5K. When I ran 5 miles two weeks ago I struggled throughout the entire run. It was way too hot, I was dehydrated, and just miserable. After that run I was pretty nervous going into my 6 miler yesterday. I knew I wanted to run it between a 10:44-11:44 pace, which should be doable. I still was really anxious about the run though. I started off at an 11:20 pace, which felt really comfortable. My goal was to stay at a comfortable pace the entire time and not worry as much about speed. The first three miles went by quickly and comfortably, and I was really excited to turn around and head back. My pace kept increasing as I ran but I still felt comfortable so I just stuck with it. With about one mile to go, a man was smoking on the trail. It was a pretty windy day so all of the smoke was blowing in my face for over half of a mile. It was absolutely dreadful and caused me to have a lot of trouble breathing. Overall it was a great run though, and now I am really excited to tackle 7 miles next week!