Does this mean I'm going to have to start taking ice baths?

I finally did it...I conquered the hills! It wasn't pretty, and I was hurting the entire time, but bam, done.

Approaching the hill where the devil lives.

My brother's friend, who's been running way more years than I have, told him that he got halfway up it one day (keep in mind that in order to get here, it's all hills also) and thought he may need to call 911. Hearing that was serious motivation.

I fought the hills and I won.

The whole way my stomach was giving me signs that things weren't going right, and when I got to the 3-mile mark I called my brother to come pick me up so that I could use our home facilities. I decided I wanted to try to get as far as I could before he got there so that the second part of my run wouldn't be too long. I only made it a half a mile. I was bummed I didn't get to run down that hill.

I think the whole having to stop in the middle killed my mojo, and the second half of my run was incredibly painful. I thought my glutes might fall off. I actually walked most of the last two miles, but as Kara told me, it doesn't matter how you do the miles, as long as you get them done. And I got seven miles done!

I think I need this.

I'm pretty sure that next weekend when I attempt seven again, I'll be taking a different route, with less hills. Today my ass is on fire.

Truth be told, I really wanted to wimp out on this run. I just wasn't feeling it. But then I got these messages and felt motivated again.

So, we all know that I was coerced into signing up for the Hot Chocolate 15k by Kara the enabler.

Now Alyssa has promised to "harass the crap out of me" until I register for the Dasani Half Marathon in Myrtle Beach...in February.

We all know that I'm going to register eventually because I'm not one to back down from a challenge (dammit). So, thank you Alyssa for that. Sadly, I have to wait until payday (this Friday), but it seriously does look like a lot of fun, AND I get to meet Alyssa and her hubby "in real life"! Plus, there's an expo (I've only heard of these and really want to experience one) and all sorts of fun things going on that weekend. So, run 9.3 miles in December (less than two months away and seven is the longest I've run so far), and then in two months, train to run four miles past that to make it to 13.1. I've got a long road ahead of me (no pun intended).

In other news, I decided to make Pippi a Halloween collar, with a little something extra to make it a little cuter to not make me not want to murder her for running into the woods.

The lighting is awful. The colors are much nicer than this.

Am I nuts for thinking I can train for a half marathon in two months, having never run that distance?

Have you ever had to crawl through the finish line?