I have to disagree

Normally I would agree with this and say a mile is a mile.  And I downloaded this image because I find it very motivational.  But on a tempo run day I have to disagree.  

Today I ran 7 miles.  One mile warm up then 5 miles at an 8:00 min pace then a cool down mile.  And let me tell you each mile was different.

The first mile felt like every first mile I run - a bit painful at first then it felt comfortable.  Then at mile 2 I had to speed up and I wondered if I could do it for 5 miles.  The next 3 miles were fine and I was just running in my groove.  By my last tempo mile I was getting tired and had to put on my iPod to drown out my breathing.  And by the last half of that mile I kept increasing my speed so I could just get it over with.  Then my last mile was heaven.  It felt good to slow it up a bit and just run it to the finish.  

This is the first time I've ever trained for a very specific (and much faster) time for a race.  So I've been very focused on how I can get faster and that is teaching me a lot about myself physically and mentally.  So for now a mile isn't just a mile but someday it will be again!