And on the ninth day,

she rose from the couch. And she put on her giant pants, and her nice new running bra, and searched for a shirt to wear of a weight befitting the spring weather. The search being fruitless, she put on an inappropriate shirt - a nice mock-neck, long sleeved light purple shirt, with an uneven textured stripe, in case anyone wants to know. She laced her fancy running shoes, she put on her fancy running jacket, thus covering up her fashion faux pas, she retrieved her MP3 player from he who borrowed it, and didn't return it. Again. For the third time.

And she ran.

And it was hard.

And after the fourth minute, she noticed she was feeling the pain more than usual. After the fifth minute her giant pants were riding so low that her inappropriate shirt would not stay tucked in, allowing a steady draft of the cool ("spring") air to flow up her shirt. She decided she would just go home. Then she thought of how couch bound she had been, and how it had been nine days since her last run, and was only 13 days until her first race of the season. And she decided to do a shorter run, instead of going home.

Thus, after 15 minutes of running, she was still running. And she was finding that although it was easier, she was forced to slow her pace from the faster pace she has been working on, and lean a bit more toward the plodding pace she was used to. And she was so engrossed in running, she forgot to take the shortcut, and she ran the full 5K, which is all her hip will let her run at this point. And it was good. And she was thankful.

And she is going shopping for new running pants today.