"The Bend"

A marvelous thing happened this morning: I conquered "The Bend."

The gameplan was to run 5 mi this morning on flatter terrain, but at the last minute I decided to attempt The Bend. The Bend is 3.4 mi long loop, but it's a series of rolling, long inclines and a few notorious hills that even at my thinnest I dreaded walking. The Bend is also home of my long-time nemesis, the Pole and its big brother, The Bigger Pole. I passed both of them and even passed their even bigger parents, Monster Pole #1 and Monster Pole #2. I don't know what is the worst part of it, the hills or those long, slow inclines that promise to flatten out but never really do. Sometimes I wonder if the person that invented Chinese Water torture saw this path in a dream and was inspired by it.

But today I RAN IT! True, sometimes I had gotten to the point where I was down to a snail's pace, but I RAN THE BEND! What was so doubly awesome was that as I was beating the last hill, I had a "movie moment". You know those moments when the sun is shining just right, the music on your iPod is at that one inspirational song and you hit your stride at the moment that song really starts cranking up? I hit the top of the hill while all this was going on, and if that wasn't awesome enough, U2's Beautiful Day started playing right as the route was ending...perfect movie moment.

I can't help but think about January, when I was scared I that I wouldn't be able to walk it! Today, I RAN IT! And not only that, but in 76% humidity and a heat index of almost 90 degrees (yeah...probably not doing that again, but I digress). Oh hell yeah...I EARNED this cup of chocolate milk!

And you know what's crazy? I can't wait to do it again.