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Week 21 (May 15 – May 21) – MJ’s Running in 2022

Welcome to the twenty first week of running for the year 2022.

Like last week, this week also involved a lot of running and I kept the route too.

The first run of the week came on Monday. Being the first day of the week, I got some wiggle room in the morning as folks from Pacific Coast log in later in the day. I got out for a quick 5K in the morning and wrapped up my run before 9AM EST. I completed this 5K run in just over 35 minutes. I would have loved speeding things up during this run, but, since this was the first run of the week, I took it a little easy on myself and enjoyed the run.

The second run of the week came the very next day on Tuesday. For this run, I wanted to go for a longer distance than my usual route. I took my Half Marathon route but I couldn’t complete the entirety of it. I completed almost 18K distance in more than 2 hours. Running constantly for more than 2 hours really needed some extra efforts from my side but I was glad to put those efforts in to taste the sweet fruit at the end of this toil. I remember during the miles 8-9, I wanted to stop for a few seconds and then resume my run, but, I knew there would be a traffic light coming up in next 10 minutes, so, I told myself to keep pushing until I see that traffic light, at which I could take some rest and it was super helpful.

I had to wait a couple days for my third run of the week. This was around the same route, but, instead of going for Half Marathon distance, I settled for a 10K. I completed 10.7K distance in 1 hour and 13 minutes. The story of this run remains kind of same as the previous run, except for the fact that, I didn’t have to wait or feel tired during the run. It felt like a smooth sailing and I missed the good old days when I used to complete 10K distance in around 1 hour.

The fourth and last run of the week was on Saturday. I was extremely busy during the entire week, so I didn’t want to miss out on running over the weekend. The weather was really nice, and I took full advantage of that. I repeated last few runs today. I took the same route, but shortened the distance a little bit. I completed 8.4K in just over an hour. This turned out to be the slowest run of the week and I wasn’t surprised. I felt sluggish from the start, and was helped by the weather multiple times. I just felt that I could have finished my running week on a higher note, but, nevertheless, I had a busy weekend ahead of me, and I couldn’t wait to get started with that.

See you next week!

Week 20 (May 08 – May 14) – MJ’s Running in 2022

Welcome to the twentieth week of running for the year 2022.

This week turned out to be a great one from my running’s point of view. One common theme about this week’s run is that all runs came around the Northville & Novi neighborhoods – my usual route of running apart from the DOGE loop.

The first run of the week came on Monday morning. I am starting to get used to my life at Apple and seeing the difference in the work culture when compared to Ford. As I am settling in with this new change, I am carving out more time for my running as the uncertainty of newness is slowly fading away with the expected work routine. I am glad that most of my team members are based in Pacific Coast, which gives me 3 hours in the morning to kick off my day and thanks to that, I could complete more than 7K distance in just over 50 minutes. My morning is becoming more predictable for me and for my soon-to-be fiancé and I am glad that this new change is not causing too much chaos in my personal life.

The second run of the day came on Monday too. I went out one more time for the run around the same route, but this time, it was during the after-hours. I completed 5K in just over 33 minutes, which is a good performance as far as my pace goes. I could notice that my afternoon pace was just a tiny slower than my morning pace because of the temperature. With no goal in mind for the year, I am just happy that I could finish more than 10K distance for the day, setting myself for a big week starting from the first day itself.

The third run of the week came on Tuesday morning. I wanted to beat last run’s distance for this route and I was glad to do that in about the same time. The morning runs in Michigan makes you feel grateful. There is no place that could give you a perfect balance of the warm temperature with a slight coolness in the air. I finished 8K in just over 51 minutes and ended up surprising myself. I know that I need new shoes but being a constant victim of self procrastination, I am not sure when I am going to buy a new pair.

The fourth run of the week came on Thursday, as I skipped my run on Wednesday due to many meetings and some last meeting deliverables. As you must have guessed, I chose the same route and completed 8.1K in more time than I anticipated. The temperature was more than I anticipated and I also didn’t put much efforts as I would have hoped for. At the end of the day, I appeased myself with the fact that I crossed 30K mark for the week, which is a big feat considering my current running schedule.

The fifth and last run of the week came on Friday. I kept it a low affair on the last working day of the week. I had a late evening meeting on Friday, so I knew if I don’t go for a run during the morning hours, I will end up skipping the day. I grabbed my lazy ass from the bed and put on my shoes and before I knew it, I was running. Surprisingly, this run turned out to be the fasted run of the week; I wouldn’t have guessed it if you would have asked me. This run made me feel like I am going back to my usual groove of running like I did before I completely stopped last year. I am grateful and happy that so many positive things are happening and life certainly feels like going in the right direction.

See you next week!

April 09, 2019 – Brussels, Belgium (Part 2)

Welcome to the second part of the Brussels exploration. I was talking about how my Brussels trip turned around after I started visiting the touristy places.

Just when I thought that the city didn’t have much to offer, I got to the most touristy area Brussels had to offer, the Les Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert. When I was planning for places to see in Brussels, this place came at the top of that list and I was glad that I got to visit it. Before my visit to the place, I read all about it and was glad to find that the place didn’t disappoint what I read. I explored all the shops that the building had to offer, but, as I was on a budget, I didn’t shop for anything. They were slightly expensive than I thought. Once I explored everything the place had to offer, I got out from the other side of the building and saw a flock of Indian parents touring the city of Brussels wearing Kesari Tours’ raincoats. I found it fascinating that people in their late 50s-60s are opting for Europe tours.

As soon as I got out, I saw a row of small shops selling “authentic” Belgium dishes. I am not a sweet guy, so I stayed away from the Belgium waffles and Chocolates, but I couldn’t stay away from the fries a.k.a. Belgium Frites. They were looking enticing and delicious from so far away, and I was naturally drawn to them and started walking towards the shop. This saved me from getting drenched in heavy rain and gave me some relief from all the walking. I loved the shape of the box in which they gave me the frites. It was triangular shape, which was ideal to hold and pour some ketchup and mustard, and also kept the fries crispy hot until you reach the bottom. I loved every bite of it, and it was just what I needed to continue with my Brussels exploration.

The next step on my list was Chocopolis. My first sister, Minu Tai, was getting married in a couple weeks and she had requested me to get some Belgium chocolates for her and her future husband. Upon my research, I found Chocopolis to have diverse collection of chocolates and they had nice reviews too. All my doubts were cleared when I visited this place in person and the employees came across really good. I video called my sister from the store and tasted some of the chocolates too. Those were so delicious, we ended up buying at least a dozen of different varieties of chocolates. I was glad that it turned out the way I wanted.

After a little sugar, it was time to visit the rest of the places that I had on my list. Grand Place was the must-visit spot for me during my time at Brussels. I had heard about it before I even knew where Belgium was. The idea of surrounding yourselves by all the sides with tall historical buildings sounded so exciting, but, it was more thrilling to witness this sight in person. I didn’t know I had been missing such an intricate architecture till today. I loved the immense care that went into sculpturing this mammoth phenomenon and I seemed to not get enough of it. I was handful of those odd balls who were enjoying themselves under constant rain just to get a feel of standing at the Grand Place. The strong pillars and the magnificent facade of the Grand Place was simply amazing and breathtaking. I remember, I couldn’t take a picture in a single frame.

Just after Grand Place, it was time to see the statue of Sir Everard t`Serclaes. This was one more thing that I really wanted to see in Brussels. I had been fascinated with the story behind this statue and the fading color of it. It was absolutely bewildering to see whatever I read was true about this statue. I was looking at people touching the statue from its head to the toe and I observed that the mostly touched area was turning yellow-gold whereas the rest of the statue was still rusty in color. If I hadn’t read that, I wouldn’t have paid much attention to it, I can tell you. There were many people at this spot as it provided a shelter to avoid the rain. I couldn’t stay there for long as I had to cover more places and it was getting darker by the hour.

The last place to checkout in this surrounding was the Manneken Pis. You can read about all the legends behind this statue in the link that I shared above, but, the most fascinating legend for me is of a boy pissing on a set of explosives to save the city of Brussels from its invaders. This simple legend sparked my interest in visiting this monument, and it doesn’t hurt that it was just a couple minutes away from the Grand Place.

After exploring all these places, I knew I was getting tired, so, I decided to head back to my AirBnb, get some rest, freshen up and then head out again at night to explore what Brussels had to offer at night.

It was a long walk from Manneken Pis to my AirBnb. Once I got there, I just crashed on the bed and slept for a good hour. By the time I woke up, it was dark outside and I checked the time. My tummy was growling, so I knew, I had to go out and get something to eat and drink. The last spot that I really wanted to check out was the Delirium Cafe.

The walk from my AirBnb to the Delirium Cafe wasn’t that long and I really enjoyed it. It was dark and the weather was not too cold and hot either. Enjoying a nice and slow walk on my way to get some food and drinks was the perfect way to spend an evening in Brussels. Delirium Cafe caught my eye when I saw that this cafe held the Guinness World Record for having the most number of beers on tap. I was a beer connoisseur back then and this place was something I couldn’t miss.

When I got to the cafe, the vibe and the ambience of the place was really enticing. I knew I wouldn’t get a table all by myself, so, I just sat at the bar near the bartender and got to talking. The people at the bar came across quite cool and initially, I felt like I didn’t belong there as I was all by myself. But, once I got a beer or two, I started enjoying a bit. I remember ordering 3-4 beers of different types and tried ordering those which I couldn’t get in India or the states. I liked a couple of them and detested one. I thought I would get some action sitting at the bar and chitchatting with the girls, but that wasn’t the case and after spending a couple hours, I was heading back to my AirBnb. Fortunately, I got some food and drinks in me, which helped me get through the night.

Tomorrow is going to be an another busy day. I am heading to Paris, France, which is going to be the last destination of this Europe trip and it just feels like it is getting over too soon!

Next stop: Paris, France.

Week 19 (May 01 – May 07) – MJ’s Running in 2022

Welcome to the eighteenth week of running for the year 2022.

I am starting to put more efforts and time in my running once more. It has been more than a week now for me at Apple and I am enjoying my time, which is igniting my hunger to get more miles under my belt.

The first run of the week came on Sunday. As I stated during last week’s running overview, I wanted to run more over the weekend and Sunday gave me that opportunity. After a long time, I finished a 10K distance and I took 65 minutes to do that. I consider it as a good time. I chose my usual Northville-Novi route for this and I was glad with the pace of this run. I think I need new shoes but not sure when I am going to get it.

The second run of the week came on Wednesday after taking a couple days off. As I am getting busier with my work days at Apple, I am not getting much time to go out. However, I told myself to put some extra effort to carve some time for my running schedule and I was glad I could do it. I chose DOGE loop for today’s running and ended up completing 8K in just over 50 minutes. I was welcomed by many of my neighbors as they were seeing me run after a long time and the summer days in Michigan are just starting to show off their colors to me. I am feeling grateful.

The third and last run of the week came during the weekend again. This time, I got a chance to go out for a run on a Saturday. The work is keeping me busy and that’s why I ended up going for a run only after Friday night. With my number of runs reducing, I made sure I put more miles under my belt and ended up completing 10K in 1 hour 15 minutes. I took 10 minutes more than the last 10K, but I was happy with the distance. The weather was quite hot for me and I had to stretch during the last mile of the run. Things are going to get busier from now on and I should work harder towards taking the time out for some running.

Let’s see how that goes.

See you next week!

Week 18 (April 24 – April 30) – MJ’s Running in 2022

Welcome to the eighteenth week of running for the year 2022.

Like last week, this week has been of low miles too.

To start things off, I got to my first run of the week on a Thursday. The only reason for this was because I started my new dream job at Apple this Monday and things have been pretty busy since then. I am meeting a lot of people, getting to know Apple’s way of working and doing things. I have longed working at Apple my whole life and it feels so great that I am living that dream now. Much of my personal talk, let’s get back to running.
So, this first run was about me trying to explore a new running route and while doing that achieve a 5K distance, both of which failed. I didn’t enjoy this new route that much and ended up stopping after completing only 4.2K distance. I would loved for more, but I didn’t want to and called it at that moment.

I didn’t have to wait a lot for my second run and it was on the new day – Friday. I chose DOGE loop for this run and it turned out to be a good decision. I completed 5K in just over 34 minutes, which is a good time for my weight and physique. I focused on my breathing during this run and I couldn’t help but chuckle at what I was going through. I was in love for real for the first time in my life and had just landed my dream job, things couldn’t have been better.

The third and last run came on Saturday. I chose DOGE loop this time too. This time, I went a little beyond 5K mark, completing 5.3K in almost the same time, which was surprising to me, may be the weather gods were also celebrating a weekend full of relaxation with me. There is nothing special about this run, except the fact that it was the weekend and I could have gone for more distance, but held back, which is okay.

I was happy that I got to finish the week on a happy note!

See you next week!

April 09, 2019 – Brussels, Belgium (Part 1)

Welcome to the second day of my solo backpacking Europe exploration. Today, we will be traveling to the capital of European Union, Brussels, which is in Belgium.

When I was planning for places to see in Europe, Brussels was not on my list, because, frankly, I hadn’t heard about the city of Brussels and wasn’t interested in visiting Belgium. But, when I took a closer look at the European map, I saw that it was on my way from Amsterdam to Paris. As I was going to travel from Amsterdam to Paris, it made sense to explore Brussels as well, and I added it to my itinerary.

I had booked an AirBnb near important places that I wanted to visit in Brussels and got a good deal too. I had a few places in my mind during my research of the city and I had planned all these places very meticulously and also made sure that I download the Google Maps, so that I don’t have a hard time finding these locations. There was just one problem – I hadn’t planned how I was going to get from Amsterdam to Brussels.

You see, having after lived in the US for more than 3 years now, I was accustomed to rent a car or take an Uber when going from one place to another and I thought it would be applicable to Europe too, but, boy, I was wrong. When I got ready to leave for Brussels, I got to the nearby car rental agency and asked for a car to get from Amsterdam to Brussels. This was the moment of realization for me when I learnt how different Europe is from the US. The car rental guy told me that it was hard to get rental cars at the last moment and I would need to cough up some extra money if I needed one, also, he didn’t have cars with automatic transmission, so if I were to rent a car, it would be a manual one. Having driven *only* automatic cars all my life, I didn’t want to take the risk and dropped the idea of driving from Amsterdam to Brussels.

The next option that came to my mind was to take a train. This was my second moment of realization of the differences between Europe and the US. In the US, there is a chance of getting a last minute ticket at a reasonable price between the destinations of your choice, which was not the case in Europe. When I walked to the counter and asked for the ticket, he told me that it would be more than £100 just to get from Amsterdam to Brussels. I was shocked to learn this and then the kind person at the counter helped me explain that if I would have booked it a couple months in advance, it would have cost me less than £30. That’s when I realized as far as the travel reservations are concerned, Europe aligns more with India than the US. It was a hard pill to swallow for me. I knew I had a limited budget for the trip and I didn’t want to throw it away just on a train ticket, but, my mind wasn’t working during this time and I ended up booking a one-way ticket from Amsterdam to Brussels. It still bugs me today.

Anyway, as soon as I got the ticket, I started heading to the correct platform at Amsterdam Centraal station. I was on my way to Brussels within minutes.

I simply fell in love with the European trains. They were so spacious, clean, and welcoming. I hadn’t had the pleasure of traveling in such first-world trains in a long time, so I was enjoying myself. During this journey, I enjoyed the views from the window for some time and then I got bored as it was going to be a couple hours’ journey. I took out my iPad and put on some episodes of Breaking Bad. I had been a huge Breaking Bad fan at this moment and couldn’t resist watching it whenever I felt low. I was glad the journey didn’t feel that long as soon as I put it on.

I reached Brussels in a couple hours and by that time, I had started raining in the city. If I knew that, I would have gotten an umbrella, but, it was too late, and I really wanted to get to my AirBnb so that I can take some rest before heading out exploring the city. The route from the Brussels station to the AirBnb was filled with many picturesque places and I couldn’t resist clicking many pictures of various things and places.

After seeking some help from my host, I got to my AirBnb and got freshen up. It turned out to be better than the pictures. I rested for a few minutes and then quickly got ready to explore the city and have some food. My AirBnb was located in a little busy area, so, it wasn’t hard to find a quick bite. I ordered a sandwich to go and munched on it while exploring the city.

The city of Brussels came across as not that happening as compared to Amsterdam. Maybe, it was because I was exploring it on a rainy day, but the initial reaction was that I was having more fun in Amsterdam than here. I had a long list of places that I wanted to visit, and there was Google Maps to help me out to walk from one place to another.

So far, I haven’t had much fun at Brussels but fortunately, that is about to change, but, you will be able to read about in the second part of this post, so, stay tuned!

Next stop: Brussels, Belgium (Part 2)

Week 17 (April 17 – April 23) – MJ’s Running in 2022

Welcome to the seventeenth week of running for the year 2022.

This week has been relatively lighter as compared to the previous weeks, as I got out only twice and that was just for two 5Ks.

The first run of the week came on a Sunday. I took my Northville-Novi loop and finished 7.6K in just over 50 minutes. This run was relatively easier and full of nice Michigan weather. As I had already ran my second Half Marathon last week, I wanted to take things easy and that’s exactly what I did during this run.

The second and the last run of the week was even more relaxing. I chose the DOGE loop for running. I complete a 5K in a net 30 minutes. The run felt great and though I was taking it slow, this run came out to be faster than the last run. I didn’t want to go for more distance as I had a busy day ahead of me.

One more thing that is going on in my professional life is that I let Ford know that I will be leaving the organization by the end of this week and will be joining Apple starting next week. It was a dream come true move for me and as much as I hated leaving my Ford team, I knew there were better things for me out there and Apple fit my incremental career plan. Let’s see how the move to Apple goes.

See you next week!

Week 16 (April 10 – April 16) – MJ’s Running in 2022

Welcome to the sixteenth week of running for the year 2022.

The snowball is just keeping on rolling for me.

This week was a great one for my running. I just ran three times this week but those were long distances, which is my favorite form of running.

The first run came on Sunday, when I finished my second Half Marathon of 2022. When I started to run, I had planned to finish just a 10K, but the weather and some motivation to finish a Half Marathon distance helped me climb that mountain. An interesting thing that happened during the run was that during the 18K mark, my legs were not working the way I wanted to, so, instead of giving up on my attempt to finish the 13.1M distance, I took a 2-minute break and just gave some relief to my legs. Once I restarted my run, everything seemed to fall into place. By the time, I was done with my run, I found out that I had finished 23K, which was more than I expected. I loved the feeling of accomplishment and celebrated it with a heavy lunch. I finished 23.2K in 2 hours and 24 minutes.

The second run of the week came on Tuesday. Just after recovering from the Half Marathon distance, I wanted to keep this run a little short, so, instead of taking the same loop like the last Half Marathon, I just took a U-turn from the midway point of the route. I saw many people soaking in the sun and enjoy their morning walks and jogs, so, it felt nice to be around some company. During this run, I saw one of my friends dropping his kids to school too. I thought of giving him a shout, but, just kept on running. At the end of the run, I noticed I had completed 11.6K distance in 1 hour 21 minutes.

The third and the last run of the week came on Saturday. This run was also in double digits. I finished 13.4K in 1 hour 44 minutes. This run came around the same loop like the previous two runs. One interesting thing to notice about this run was that it was the slowest among the three runs. I was happy with the effort and wish I could have gone for some more distance since it was the weekend.

See you next week!

April 08, 2019 – Amsterdam, Netherlands (Part 2)

. Welcome to the second part of my Amsterdam adventure. I promise you won’t be disappointed. If you hadn’t, please have a read about how the Part 1 went.

The next item on the list was to explore a couple of beautiful museums (from the outside) that Amsterdam had to offer. The first museum was Rijksmuseum and the second one was Van Gogh Musuem. During this trip, I realized how much I hate visiting museums. The first thing was the ticket price. I didn’t want to spend 50+ Euros on just exploring something inside of a building and it appearing too wise for my dumb brain. Also, you must know that I was exploring Amsterdam during the full bloom of the Tulip Festival, so, you can imagine, I didn’t want to let go of this opportunity to explore the outdoors beauty and ditched the plan of purchasing tickets to go inside these museums. I briefly visited the Amsterdam Downtown area and when I got bored of all the walking and seeing countless of beautiful tulips around me, I had a brilliant idea of purchasing the Heineken Brewery experience tickets to get inside one of the most famous breweries in the world and see myself how the experience looks like. The tickets were cheap too as I didn’t mind spending 17 Euros on a ticket where I would get to learn about some history of Heineken and possible drink a one or two pint of beers. I had my fingers crossed but I wasn’t prepared for what was about to come next.

It was just a few minutes walk from Rijksmuseum to the Heineken Brewery factory tour. I knew I was going to have fun the moment I walked in. I was surrounded by funny people who knew how to have fun. Everybody knew exactly why they were here and were waiting to get their hands on some Heinekens. But, before doing that, we had to go through the usual “tour” part of the experience. I didn’t really understand the brewing process, except knowing that they use wheat to prepare Heineken and that was it. I told myself, Milind, you are too dumb to understand it, so just better enjoy the tour and just wait for some cool pictures to be taken. There were a couple of spots where I really loved taking pictures and they were designated “selfie spots” for the social media posts. The penultimate part of the tour was simply amazing and something that I hadn’t experienced before. Man, the presentation, the lighting, the sound, and the experience as a whole was out of this world. I remember enjoying it to the fullest and remember other people awing the experience; At that moment, I realized this was worth the time and money.

The next part of the experience was what we were there for. The tour guide told us that this was the freshest beer we were going to taste in our lives, and boy, he was right. The taste of that beer is still with me and even after three years, I hadn’t had a beer which tasted like that one. I still crave for that taste from time to time. But, the more exciting that was waiting for me at the end of the brewery.

At the start of the tour, they had given us a wristband to wear, which told the authorities that we were allowed to wander inside the brewery and when the tour ended, our guide told us that we could use the beads on those wristbands in exchange of a glass of beer, which was freshly brewed right at that brewery. I exchanged my 2 beads and chugged my beers in no time. The time our tour ended was a perfect Segway to start the evening festivities for the brewery so they decided to play a little game and whoever played, they got a free bottle of beer. Chugging down a couple beers didn’t quench my thirst, so I decided to join in. The game was to pour beer perfectly in a glass, without forming any bubbles. It felt easier when I saw other people doing it. When I got to the stage, I knew it was harder than it looked. I sucked at that game, but, fortunately, the person that I was competing with sucked even more, handing me the win. That’s how I won a glass of Heineken. Right after that, a couple people approached me saying my enthusiasm impressed them and they wanted to give their beads to me. A beer connoisseur in me instantly accepted their invitation and got a couple more beers for myself. I must say after having 5-6 rounds of beers, I felt little uneasy, but it was all worth it. At the end of the evening, before heading out, I wrote my name on the huge blackboard with the date, sort of commemorating my entire experience in that single picture. I must say this was the best thing I did, at least today. I left the place, a little dizzy, and just smiling at all the beautiful people riding their bicycles outside. It was time to head to the hotel to get some rest and possibly, wear of the effect of many beers on my body.

When I was walking back to the hotel, I saw how a typical traffic jam looks like in Amsterdam. All the beautiful girls and grown men were riding bicycles with their fancy outfits and you could see that they took the entire road, causing the traffic to block. Being a little high on the beer made me smile at this situation, because it didn’t feel real to me.

Anyway, I got back to the hotel somehow and just laid on my bed for a couple of hours. When I woke up from my evening nap, I realized it was dark outside, so I decided to head to the bar that was downstairs and see what’s up with Amsterdam at night. I was pleasantly surprised to find the hostel bar was buzzing with people. There was a pool table, a smoking room where people were smoking mostly weed and a small area for some food and drinks. It was a karaoke night, so, everyone was taking part in singing some songs. Too tired to be in a social environment, I decided to opt out this activity and headed outside to have a quick bite. After exploring a lot, I decided to have a burger as the jet lag was finally catching up to me. I decided to call it a night at around midnight as I had an early checkout the next morning for my next stop of Europe trip: Brussels in Belgium.

I had a long day today and going to have a long day tomorrow too, so, I better get charged up a little.

Next stop: Brussels, Belgium.

Week 15 (April 03 – April 09) – MJ’s Running in 2022

Welcome to the fifteenth week of running for the year 2022.

This week was epic.

I ran just twice during this week. Both the runs came around the same route, but the first run was just over 7K in distance, whereas the second one was the FIRST HALF MARATHON of 2022.

I ran the for the first time during this week on a Tuesday and it felt really great to finish 7.3 K in just over 41 minutes. That counts as a fast run for me. I never knew I would be able to finish run this faster this quickly. I am glad with the progress so far.

The second and the last run of the week came around the same route on a Thursday. Initially, I thought I would finish a 10K and call it a day but the weather felt so nice and I was also in my groove, so I just told myself to finish a 13K first and then see how it goes. After crossing 13K, my body told me to go for more distance, so I set my eyes on 15K, which felt easy too. The next target was 18K and once I achieved it, I knew the Half Marathon distance was not far away. The feelings and emotions were high at the end of this run, as this cemented the confidence for my running journey.

This felt like a great week for me.

See you next week!