Come A Long Way

I've never really loved treadmill running, and I've always had to push myself to go 3o minutes at a 6.0-6.5mph pace. When the weather gets nice each year, I take the running outside. I generally don't have a good sense of my speed and endurance on a treadmill vs. outdoors, although I'm sure they're about equivalent.

I was running on the treadmill today and found that I felt most comfortable at a 6.7mph pace (just under 9min/mile) - not too fast, not too slow. I upped it to 7.0 for 10 minutes then slowed back down again, for a total of 50 minutes of running, and 5.3 miles. This was faster, for longer, than I've ever felt comfortable on a treadmill. And I realized: all this running has really been doing something for me. I've come a long way, and a half marathon seems like just another long weekend run.



In the next couple of days, Eric and I will look at about 10 apartments - the hunt has officially begun! In 2005, I moved into my very first real adult apartment in Center City, Philadelphia. My roommate and I went into it knowing it was just for the year; temporary housing for a temporary year. The apartment was a "bigbox" type place, big and bright and somewhat impersonal. ALL of my furniture was donated, and the majority of it was covered in cat and ferret fur. My bed smelled like animal pee (don't worry, I replaced it). A day or so after I moved in, I saw a GIANT cockroach scuttle across the living room floor and had an instant of cataplexy; I fell to the ground, out of breath and paralyzed by fear/disgust/hatred of roaches. I wanted to call my dad to have him kill it. That year, I got biweekly paychecks and roamed the city in my just-out-of-college naivete, unaware of just how young I was.

And here I am, five years later, apartment hunting again. This upcoming year, I'll roam a new city (or, more likely, the hospital), unaware of just how young I am. But this time I'll be married (in 60 days!), with less donated furniture, and when I see a giant cockroach I'll just scream for the husband to off it. But there'd better not be any cockroaches! I'll get biweekly paychecks again, but this time, work won't be a job but the start of a career, and this new place won't be an apartment but our first home.

It's been a long five years, and it's satisfying to see that they've been full of growth, and progress. Thanks for coming along on the ride.