Milestone!

   For a month or two now, I have been running every other day with a goal in mind. I wanted to be able to run five kilometers.
   I started gradually in the summer, combining walking with increasing increments of running until I eventually got to where I could run 3K without stopping to walk. As that goal was attained, I immediately re-focused. I then wanted to be able to run 4K without a break. Attaining this, 5K without a break was where I was then headed.
   I had devised my own system for doing this. I had a 5K route in my neighbourhood mapped out and I began running it. The first time, I stopped halfway and walked for one minute. The next time I ran, I simply went one sidestreet further and then walked. The next time out, one sidestreet further. Gradually, I was pushing that one minute of walking closer and closer to the end of the run, knowing that when this happened I would have reached my goal. Last night, I had one more walking break planned but when I got to it I was so close to the end of my run that I decided to just forget about it and keep running.


! ! ! ! ! !

   There I was, 5K without walking!
   This still seems a little incomprehensible to me. It truly does seem like just yesterday that I was struggling with running four minutes in a row. Now I'm running forty minutes in a row! With a view toward getting down into the thirties.
   So now I guess I start paying a little more attention to the clock. I already have been timing myself, obviously, but my time was really not the focus of my running. Until last night, all I wanted to do was be able to run the whole way. Well, I did that and now I have to keep doing that and if I can do it just a little faster each time then I'm a happy man.