The timed two mile during high school field hockey practice was the biggest athletic challenge during the first 18 years of my life. I remember dreading those practices, the coach would tell us not to even bother bringing out cleats out to practice. I dreaded being at the back of the pack and being passed by freshmen who were on JV. I can still remember the dirt being kicked up in my face as all the fast runners took off. I can feel my heart pulsating out of my chest and realizing that I would have to stop to walk. And the worst was when the results were published for public viewing outside my coach's office. I think my best time was somewhere around 22 or 23 minutes. I don't think I ever broke 20 or came anywhere close!

But times have changed and this past weekend I ran the Baltimore half marathon! I RAN 13.1 miles (well walked for maybe .1 of those)! I finished in a little less than 2 hours (8 seconds less to be exact). 2 hours was my goal so I did pretty much whatever was necessary to get my body over that finish line in 2 hours. My pace was 9:09/mile. I was in the top 17% of my age group, no back of the pack this time! So I decided to look back at my percentiles in some of my past races. My last 5K back in March I finished with an 8:08 mile pace. With all this running training since March, I'm hoping for a 7:30/mile pace in my next 5K, which would put me around 23:15 for the total race. I can't believe that in high school I used to run 2 miles in that time! It's so exciting to see the progress!