Mission accomplished.

Yesterday I accomplished a fantastic feat of strength, endurance, and sheer will.  It is probably most comprable to the twelve great labors of Hercules, or the climbing of Mt. Everest, or even making the perfect grilled cheese sandwich.  What did I do that deserves eternal praise and awe?  (Drumroll?) I ran a mile in 8 minutes.  Yeah, yeah, I know what you're thinking... Really?  All that build-up for that measly little accomplishment?  I do that every day... in my sleep... on my hands!  It may not seem like a big deal to most people.  It's not that fast and most people have much more extrordinary accomplishments under their belt. 

The point is, I've had this goal since I was twelve, or something close to it.  I remember writing in my journal that my dad had promised me some gift (I think it was fifty dollars) if I could run an 8-minute mile by the end of summer.  I was all gung-ho for about three days back then, but my heart wasn't in it and I just didn't care that much.  So, the goal fell by the wayside and sat there, leering at me for a decade.  I tried occasionally, getting spurts of motivation that would last a week or two, but the short-lived efforts never amounted to much.  Once, my freshman year of college, I ran six miles straight (nine total that day), but they were slow, painful, over-ten-minute miles. 

This past month, I started going to the gym regularly, sometimes twice in a day, and just ran without too specific of a purpose.  One day I tried the ugly ten-minute mile, and found that it wasn't as grueling as I expected it to be.  A week or two later I was down to nine.  Yesterday morning, I woke up after a fitful night's sleep, cranky and annoyed at the sun for not being up yet.  But somewhere in the car ride between my apartment and the gym, I just knew that it was the day.  The day to conquer what had been nagging at me for ten years. 

And... it was done.  Not particularly gracefully, not with any kind of running finesse, but done. 

A small but meaningful moment in my life.  If I never run that fast again, I don't care.  I'm not going to stop trying to better my time, but the satisfaction of working for and actually accomplishing that measurable goal is something I'm just... happy and satisfied with.  :)