Running is like a box of chocolates

I'm pretty confident in thinking that any runner will agree that there are a range of run types. Some are amazing, others are awful from start to finish. You get your PB runs and then the ones where you question why you even run at all. We run in the glorious sunshine and the horrific wind and rain. The snow, the dark, the sun, up hills, through fields, through sticky mud. No run in the same.

I was super excited to sign up for the Forrest Gump medal as I'm a huge fan of the film and I decided to dedicate my first ever 10 mile run to gaining the evidence for it. Up to this point I had never ran more than 7 miles at one time. It was tough but amazing. The feeling that I felt afterwards can only be described as euphoric. At 6 miles in, I felt anything but that!!! I really wanted to give up but I managed to talk myself around. I had deliberately planned a route that tool me 5 miles from home and then 5 miles back. If I had decided to give up, I still would have had to have walked the distance to get home again. At 6 miles I was starting to get hungry, there was a hill ahead of me and 4 more miles seemed a long way but, equally, I knew it would take me a lot longer walking and that there was a big downhill coming.
I dug in deep and I managed to get to 9 miles. I was so pleased with myself for getting this far but I was a bit daunted by the knowledge that I was still 8-20 minutes away from home (depending on how fast I moved!) It ended up being an almost 11 minute mile. I was sooooo glad to be done but I also know that if I had been further from home, I could have carried on. My head gave up but my legs had loads left in them. Knowing that I've managed 10 miles has boosted my confidence ahead of my first half marathon in June. My focus now is beating the mental barriers I come across when running.
As Forrest himself may say "runs are like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get!"
A huge lesson for me has been that the bad runs make the good ones better.Keep running ladies and gents.