Another crazy day at the gym

So I show up to the gym this morning to get in that stride class again (something I think will become part of my regular routine because I love it so much) when the girl behind the counter says "KELLY!!?"  I must admit she looked very familiar but it was not until she said "I am Bryanna" that I realized I had just run into an online friend.  Bryanna and I grew up in the same city but went to different schools so we never met.  Then one day on Facebook she posted on a mutual friends page that she was moving to the town I live in.  So I sent her a message asking where and come to find out she is just a few blocks from me.  We became FB friends and even talked on the phone trying to set up a time to go for a walk together but our schedules just never matched up.   LOL  it was a great way to start my morning and she informed me that she was starting the Couch to 5k so I am super excited about having a running buddy. 
So on to the class, as I mentioned in the last post the instructor mentioned some hill work.  I do not do well with hills, I try to avoid them and when I just happen to come upon them I usually walk.  I gave up on hills long ago when my shins were so bad and I felt like the hill running was only making things worse if not the cause of the pain.  The gym was not as busy today so I am thinking that I am not the only person who is afraid of hills.  Today we spent more time on our set speed. (the speed in which we feel most comfortable with)  We started at a 0 incline and then she had us bump it up to a 2.  This is when the oh shit thoughts came into my mind.  What the hell happen to 1?  About 3 min later... "take it up to 4" then we went back down to 0.  Okay I got through that, not to bad.  We did some short sprints and when those were done I was feeling good until she mentioned it was time to run some steeper hills.   I do not know how long we were doing the hills but it seemed like FOREVER.  I did have to drop my speed down a little bit from my set speed but I never stopped running and I got that treadmill up to a 7 incline and held it there until we were instructed to drop it back down to 0.   It was at that time when the guy next to me looked over and said your doing awesome!   We did some more running at our set speed and some sprints before I had to start my cool down.  Sadly I get only a very short amount of time to work out in the morning since I work 10 hr days each day so I have to end my workout about 5 min before the rest of the class. Thats ok though because I still get in 40 min of cardio and still save time for a cool down and streatching.  Shortly after I arrived in the locker room a woman came in and said to me "nice work out there today you did great and were even brave enough to be in the front row.  you did good!!"    It made me feel good and reminded me of how it was at the Y, everyone supporting one another ya know.  It is hard being the newbie at anything but makes it easier when the people around you are kind and supportive.  So to the nice man and nice woman who gave me props today THANK YOU, I appreciated it!!
I ended up with 3.25 total but the .25 was just my cool down.  I ran those 3 miles in 39:50.  Still a whole lost slower then I was before my broken toe but the fact that most of this run was done with the treadmill with some sort of incline makes that time feel pretty good.  Happy with my accomplishments for the day :)