Running in VA - Another Hotel Gym

We recently took a 4 day trip to Virginia Beach to visit my sister (MF) for her birthday.  Originally our hotel was on the beach so I was hoping to get the chance to run on the boardwalk in the mornings.  However, that didn't work out and we ended up having to change hotels.  You can read about the drama here (if you can't read it but want access, let me know!).  So we ended up at the Hilton Garden Inn and I got the chance to use another Hilton fitness center.

The last time I used a gym was when we stayed at a Hilton for my cousin's wedding, and that was a much different experience! I actually went back and re-read what I wrote and am amazed by how far I have come since then!  Not only with running itself, but with my confidence in running and in myself.  Since both hotels were Hiltons, they had the same treadmills in them, so I sort-of remembered how it worked from last time.  I did have to text wifey to find out where the jack for the earbuds was, but other than that I was good to go, lol.  I've been doing this for longer than 2 weeks now so I know I am a capable runner, I have three 5K's under my belt now.  I know I don't look ridiculous, and I know that adults who are working out aren't going to tease me or throw gum in my hair during their workouts.  So I went into the run at least not worrying about all that extraneous stuff.

I was, however, worried about how I was going to perform.  I ran on Saturday morning, 5 days after my last run and we all know how I feel when too much time goes between runs.  I was also dealing with some crazy allergies that morning and having a difficult time breathing in general, so I wasn't too sure how my lungs would hold up.  My expectations weren't that high to be honest, and I was just looking forward to doing as much movement as my body would allow, whatever that meant.  These fancy schmancy machines all have TV's built right into them and I was lucky to find a marathon of Roseanne to run to.  Seriously, if you can watch a comedy while running the time really flies by!

I kept my pace at a 6 for as long as I could, and I ran 2 miles in just over 20 minutes.  After that I had to slow down because my lungs were not holding up too well, so I kept alternating between a fast walk and running at a 6 for a total of 3.5 miles.  The last 0.25 mile was my cool-down walk.  I have no idea what my total time was but it was not my best and not the worst.  I was happy just to get any exercise in at all.  The rest of the trip was filled with activity so there wasn't too much time to get back to the gym.  I am hoping that now that we are home and don't have any trips or guests scheduled for a while we can settle back in to a normal routine, running included.