4 miles and a cloud of dust

Not really, it was one of the hardest runs I have ever had, but I achieved the two goals I had for it went I set out 1)Finish and 2)No walking. I knew I was in trouble when in the first 5 minutes I felt winded and was stuggling up the hills, but it got a little better. This is the first time in my life that I have ever run four miles (especially when not being chased) I ran the big loop around Craighead, which is quite hilly (not used to big hills) and when I got around to finish the third mile it was one of the biggest hills and in my mind I thought, this is it, I can go no further..must stop...must walk!!, but then that inner voive started say things like, "you will draw on this experiance in the 1/2 marathon if you just keep going, and how one mile is really not that far, and would I really want to go home and have to say, well I had to quit today, becase I felt tired? Not that I am saying that you should ever run through pain or do something stupid, but in this case I knew I was just uncomfortable and that is not a good excuse to stop running. On I went and it really got better becase on the other side of that hill was a downhill and then the last mile was really flat. Funny how running teaches me so much about life.