Running!

"Running!" That's what Spencer joyfully yells when he tears up and down our hallway and our our house.  I'd like to think I can claim a part of his joy in the feeling.  I've taken him running with me and there was a point where I truly found joy in running too, though it's been a few years since it really felt good. Unfortunately, there aren't any sidewalks near where we live, or shoulders for that matter, and so there is nowhere easily reached on foot to use the small car that is our double jogging stroller/bike trailer. So my running has been planned for the last month to fit into my early mornings before Spencer wakes up.

By planned I mean until today it hasn't happened.  First we had to move in and recuperate from the trip out.  Then I needed to get as much sleep as possible to recover from the months leading up to this move.  Then we all got sick. I'm sure I could come up with other reasons, but the end result is that I have not been running since before Thanksgiving if memory serves, and then only a few times since I had Genevieve. I stopped running at 30 weeks pregnant when I got the cold of all colds that knocked me out for at least two weeks. So this running thing has been a bit sketchy for the last year or so. Let's be honest, the last few years.  Having kids hasn't done good things to the running part of my life. I've kept running just enough to still say I'm a runner and no more.

But never fear! It's time to take it up again. Some of my friends here go running a couple days a week at the ripe old time of 5:40AM.  Cough, cough, what?!?! Yeah, that's really early and I've really enjoyed sleeping in with the kids the last five months since Genevieve was born. Don't hate me because my kids sleep in until 8 or 9 most days and lately 10 for Spencer. We have other problems. I count that little thing a blessing. However, I've been getting up at 6:30 or 7 for the last few weeks in order to get my work in before they wake up. It makes the rest of my day infinitely better to be done before they enter the scene for the day.  I've had this idea that if I get my workout done before they wake up, that will make my day much better too, but in practice it hasn't happened much yet.  But it did today!

So I ran the incredible distance of 1.4 miles today.  It felt good. It was freezing. 36 degrees feels a lot colder here than in Utah or Colorado.  I felt like I was drinking the air, which was quite pleasant actually. I don't think I'm going to have a problem with dry mouth running on this side of the country.  I can get used to that. I left at 6AM. So if I want to run with my friends, which I do, I have to be able to get down to Clemson by 5:30 and actually be able to run their "easy" 4-6 miles.  There was a time in my life where that really was easy.  What? Run a quick 25 minutes? Sure! That's nothing. An hour? That's a standard, decent workout. I'm pretty sure when I had thoughts like that I was also training for said race in the picture, and getting awesome tan lines like this while running it.

But for now I'll be happy with my 1.4 miles that wasn't that easy, but felt good. I'll work towards those 4 miles that feel like a lot now.  I'll build up to actually running 4 miles in 30 minutes like I used to be able to do, so I can run with my friends. And I'll try to get up a bit earlier. And hopefully I'll get back to that point of feeling joyful and wanting to run down the hall yelling, "running!"