This Is Tess Bridges

  As I reflect on this past month, I am proud of a few things.  I may have run a half marathon at a race yesterday, but that wasn’t my first half marathon in technicality. As some of you may have seen on my stories on Instagram a few weeks ago, I ran my first half marathon during my last long run with my friend, Barb.   The goal for that long run was to run 20k.   We decided to take our time and go at an easy pace. It was a good run. We pretty much did a loop of the north and south side of the city. During the run, we had some good conversations, and it was a run I didn’t listen to music at all. As we neared the end of the route, we looked at each other and said, “I bet we could go a bit further, and complete 21.1k.   At the 20k distance, I probably could have finished there as my hip was giving me issues, but I wanted to see us finish 21.1k together.   Sometimes you need those moments to push yourself and do something hard. Finishing the last long run with my friend was an amazi

  It has been almost two years since I last made a blog post.  So much has happened since then. It is almost hard to know where to begin. In my last post, I had walked 7km and I was proud of walking that distance. I then considered taking a course to learn how to run properly. I wondered, "If I could walk that distance what else could I do?" I was hesitant at first, because I feared getting injured. Running was something I had always wanted to do, but I honestly think starting held me back. We were still in the height of COVID-19, so no running groups were happening at the time. So, I decided to download the "Couch to 5K" app, and start from there. I remember that first run vividly. I was wearing some semi-worn shoes, and I had my phone to track the run. It was a hot evening, and I took off. I remember starting that run. I alternated between running and walking. That first run wasn’t long at all. I remember I was breathing heavily during and after the run. At