Yesterday afternoon I decided that my four mile walks would become my "power walks", the ones that I'm really going to push myself for time. I need to make sure that my 1/2 marathon pace is less than a 16 minute mile and so far I've been averaging between 16 & 17 minutes. I figured now is the time to start pushing myself and get those times down.
Mike & Sam decided to go with me and since Mike has to walk 3 miles for his PT test this week and he has to do it in less that 45 minutes, it made sense to let him set the pace. I wasn't able to keep up with him but I didn't drop too far behind him.
My first mile is always slow so I was pleased when the split showed 15:48. Less than 16 minutes. The second mile involves walking on a county highway and I don't like walking on it when I have Sam the dog. I just don't trust her around cars that are doing between 60 & 70 mph. (I don't trust the cars either.) Because of that I really pushed myself on that stretch and wound up passing Mike when he slowed down to keep track of Sam when a truck went by. You can imagine my delight when I hit the mile marker and my split was 14:49! YAY! I CAN DO IT!!
Except I was exhausted and two miles from home! My nephew who runs marathons told me that he always eats his "energy treat" at the 3, 6, 9 & 12 mile markers and that's what I was planning on doing but after pushing myself so hard I was pooped. That's the one thing he really emphasized was not to let yourself get pooped out, so to make sure I take my energy supplement when I need it, not according to some schedule. Since I had brought along the Jelly Belly Sport Beans, I decided to give them a try. Most people I've talked to said they didn't like the jelly beans but these had been freebies and since I like orange I had brought them along. I ate three and washed them down with some water. They really weren't bad and the tangy flavor made my mouth water. This was MUCH BETTER than the dry power bar I had tried a couple weeks ago.
Not knowing what to expect from these beans and pushed on at the rate I had been going. I was tired and was reminding myself how cool it was walking in Indy where there had been so many things to look at and distract myself with. Rows and rows of corn and soybeans gets a little monotonous. I was wishing for SOMETHING to distract myself from how tired I was, because I was getting a little discouraged.
Then the magic started.....not from the beans but from God. Mike & Sam were walking about 20 feet ahead of me on this dusty, gravel road between two green cornfields but they were stirring up thousands of yellow sulphur butterflies! I kept waiting for the flock to lessen but after an 1/8 of a mile Mike looked over his shoulder at me just grinning! "Can you believe this? It's like a fairy tale!" I told him I felt like I was in a Disney movie and we both started singing "Zippity Do Dah, Zippity Ay, my oh my what a wonderful day!" I have no idea when the jelly beans kicked in but by the time I hit the 1/2 mile mark, we were laughing and skipping among all of these thousands of yellow and tiny blue butterflies! There were clouds of them and just the three of us to enjoy them on this deserted back road. Oh what a beautiful fantastic memory! And my split, even with us joking and skipping around was a 15:32! Not too shabby while having such fun.
I can't tell you what my final split was because Sam (our 10 year old Lab) pooped out on us and decided three miles was her limit and she was done. She struggled to push herself but then finally went up into the shade of the cornfield and laid down. I stayed with her while Mike ran home and got the truck. Sam & I rode home, so I didn't really get my 4 miles in.
Sam's doing fine now and the vet's office suggested that her old bones just told her enough, it was time to rest. Today when I put on my running clothes, she pulled herself up and came out and looked at me as if to say "ok, I can do this...." When I told her she wasn't going with me today, she gave a big sigh and walked back to her bed and plopped down. I'm waiting for her to conk out and then I'll sneak out. I want to go find the magic butterflies again.