I surprised myself today.

For the past few days I have been feeling a little bit down, and a little bit out of it. I slept through my morning workout three days in a row, and didn’t have the time or motivation to tie up my sneakers at the end of the workday. I’m usually STARVING by the time I get home from work, and exercising is the LAST thing I want to do. I have things to write and people to see. Honestly, I find it stressful trying to accomplish everything that’s on my plate as it is. But today as I dragged my huge bag of stuff home (I don’t know why I insist on always bringing so much stuff with me), I made myself promise that I would go for a run.

I’m nearing the end of my half marathon training regimen (I’m running the BMO on May 4th) so it’s really important that I get as many runs in as possible. It took me about an hour and a half after getting home to finally lace up my sneakers (and I almost talked myself out of it), but in the end I did it. As soon as I stepped outside I felt instantly better. I kicked off from my starting line at a good pace… actually at a much faster pace than I’m used to running at, but I didn’t feel like I was over exerting myself. In fact, I felt really great.

As I ran, I felt free. As I breathed and drummed my loose wrists to the beat of the music humming in my ears, I felt like I was on top of the world. My inhibitions couldn’t keep up with me, I was going so fast. At points in my run, I have memories of simply flinging both of my arms back and looking up toward to sky. I breathed in the beauty of the beach that I was running next to. The beauty of the sun disappearing behind the mountains. I can’t believe that I live THIS close such beauty, and I so rarely leave the confines of my home to appreciate it. I ran faster. A huge smile was plastered over my face. I couldn’t tell if I wanted to cry or if I wanted to laugh. I wanted to dance. I turned the running movement into a dance of sorts as I sped along the seawall. All this energy. I’m not even sure that I understand where it came from.

After over a year of trying to get my 10k in under 50 minutes, I did it today in 49.37! I could have done it even faster, but I got a foot cramp during the last kilometre. This is huge for me. I wasn’t even going to run today, and when I buckled down and did it, I ended up reaching a goal that I’d been working toward for over a year.

After my run, I kicked off my shoes and did yoga on the beach. The air brushed against my skin as I balanced in warrior three, spent an amazing amount of time in pigeon, and balanced in bakasana. I even managed to jump back from bakasana into plank thanks to a yoga training I recently did with Kino MacGregor.

I felt in my body, and I felt alive. I didn’t know what time it was and I didn’t care. I didn’t care if people were watching me. I didn’t care if people were judging me. All that I knew was that I was happy. Today has been a good day.