Over 50 Running: Not Every Mile Has to Be Perfect

I was gently reminded this morning that not every run needs to be perfect and a PR (personal record). running in Florida humidity over 50 is no joke.

I arrived at my mom’s yesterday afternoon just south of Tampa.

For a runDisney girlie, you would think this would be the perfect training environment for me.

Except I’m used to running inside on a treadmill or outside on cooler days in Texas.

And it is late May in Florida.

I stepped outside at 7 AM thinking I could knock out a couple miles and call it good.

By half a mile, I felt like I was drowning.

It had rained on and off yesterday, so I was dodging puddles. The humidity had me sweating the second I walked out of my mom’s nicely air-conditioned house.

Honestly, it felt like I was running in soup.

Needless to say, I did not set any records today.

I was lucky to finish a mile and a half, and it was not a pretty mile and a half.

But you know what?

I still did it.

I showed up.

I proved to myself that even on the hard runs, I can still get out there and keep moving.

And that matters more than pace.

Not every mile is a record.
Not every run feels good.
Some runs simply teach you how to keep going anyway.

Especially as runners over 50, sometimes adapting to the conditions is the win.

Will I get up and run again tomorrow?

Yep.

Will it look much better than today?

Honestly, probably not.

But I’m still going to get out there and do it because I have goals I want to accomplish, even if I have to run through soup to get there.

There will be good runs and bad runs.

The key is learning to keep showing up for all of them.