Mind Over Muscle

Happy Canada Day! To celebrate, I met up with my group for a run. Fun times! It was our "clinic night" which meant a chat followed by a run. I had emailed my coach earlier with my goal of running a sub-2 hour along with one of my Australian coaches. Wow! So much great advice has come pouring in!
To start, we were doing a 4k "steady" run. My coach recommended I run that at a 5.15min/km pace.
Gulp! I was nervous. I wasn't sure how I would do.
The first hundred metres was thick with people (Eau Claire being THE place to celebrate Canada Day, apparently), but this quickly thinned out.
The goal of our group was two-fold:
1. Run a steady pace (my pace was 5.15).
2. Run negative splits. This is always a weak point with me!

First km - pretty easy. Feeling okay. I was pulling myself back a few times. 5.10min/km split.

Second km - getting tough! Where is the freaking turn-around point? WHERE??? 5.14min/km split.

Third km - I can't do this. I just can't. But...I need to give it my best shot. And sheesh it's almost over. Mind over muscle! You've got this. Don't give in. 5.10min/km split

Fourth km - wow, this sucks. I am really struggling. All I want to do is stop. I just want to stop!!! This is misery. But if I slow down, then I'll know it was because I gave up on myself. And...if I slow down, that will just be prolonging the agony! 5.06min/km split.

Total time: 20.14
Total distance: 3.90km
Average pace: 5.10min/km. Comfortably under my goal time!

It may not sound like much. It may not even mean much, but getting under that goal time even when things got really tough and I just wanted to give up...that felt pretty awesome.