Monday May 7th - four and a half miles

I'm constantly reminded that I should never skip runs, not because I skip them, but because when I really want to skip them, and then do them anyway, they're usually some of my best.
Yesterday I had a bad day.  Not for any real reason.  I was really busy at work and overwhelmed, but it wasn't necessarily a bad work day.  I was grouchy, tense, sad, overwhelmed, and annoyed.  Part of it could have been the terrible night's sleep I'd gotten, but usually being tired doesn't make me have a day like I did yesterday.  I also have felt like I'm just starting to deal with mourning the loss of my friend Dina.
When I left work it was raining a bit.  Great.  I really didn't want to attempt 4 1/2 miles on a treadmill.  I got home to change and let myself decompress for about a half hour.  I seriously didn't want to go out.  All I wanted to do was climb into bed and feel sorry for myself.  I just felt exhausted.
But.
I sucked it up.  I put on a hat and my running clothes and headed out.  It had basically quit raining, only an occasional drop here and there.  I told myself I would let myself run at a comfortable pace and just take it easy and try to enjoy it.  Also, it's not a bad idea to get some rain runs under my belt because who knows what the weather will be like on my race days.
And enjoy it I did.  Wow.  It was an amazing run.  I felt great basically the whole time.  My knee bothered me a bit, I think mostly because of the rain.  The Park was the most empty I think it's ever been when I've been running.  It was AWESOME.  I always wish for less people in the Park while I run.  I always want more solitude, and last night I got it.  It really was just an all around great run and I have to admit that I loved it.  I found myself so happy when I was finished.  I didn't feel like I was killing myself at the end, and felt like I could have run another two miles easily, which is what I'll be doing at my 10k this Saturday.  These runs always come when I need them.  Such a nice confidence booster.  I did get intimidated thinking about how in under two weeks I've got an eight mile run and that's almost double what I ran last night, plus I'll be doing it in a new place since I'll be out of town, but I told myself to not focus on that, but how confident I'll feel after I do it.
mile 1: 9:27
mile 2: 9:24
mile 3: 9:25
mile 4: 9:38
average: 9:25/mile
total: 44:01
4.68 miles
(when there's a half mile I don't want to figure out how long it took me, the app lists it as the mile average, yet I didn't run the full mile and I don't feel like doing the math)