Like, on Tuesday, I was pale white when I finished. An example of something just...being terribly wrong with me; all the color drains out of my skin.
But today, instead of the color draining out of my skin, it was all pouring into it. I'm not quite sure if that's really a good thing, but let me tell you: it felt good. I did use the treadmill, which kinda sucks. I didn't have exactly an easy time because my mental battle kept constantly telling me to quit. Treadmills are monotonous, boring, and also deceptive in that they both seem much easier than they actually are, and yet also much harder than they actually are. The latter being the concern, where I thought I was worse off than I actually was.
But while mentally it was exertion to the extreme, physically...well I can't say I didn't break a sweat, because I did, but by the end I actually sped up beyond the mph necessary in part due to that mental battle (I felt that I needed to outpace my desire to give up) but also in part because I knew I could, if I wanted to, run that much faster.
Ended up with the 1.75 miles being done in exactly 15 minutes, a pace which is pretty dead on the money 7 mph. Somewhere in the range of like an 8.5 minute mile. Not the fastest run, but well below the 16:15 cutoff. I feel good. Not as good as I would have if I had been able to do the run outside (I feel like it's possible I could have, but I admit it wasn't assured and that's why I couldn't take the risk), but while outside poses more challenges and is the tradition, it also carries with it things which I don't really care to deal with on such short notice. (Namely: running by myself means pacing is nigh impossible; I was always abysmal at self-pacing and relied on others to have a gauge of my pace. And the one area which knocks the wind out of me is something that I'm not positive I could overcome in this timeframe.)
Given that I was physically fit enough to do the run (albeit indoors on a treadmill).
And given that I still had to earn it, I still had to fight for it even if the fight was mental rather than physical.
I overall still feel good.