Day 18--January 18--Nirvana

Everything came together today. I wanted to do a long run, and after the weather of the last three or four days, anything about thirty degrees outside was a gift. So when I woke up to overcast skies, a slight wind, and temperatures in the 30s, I thought it might be a perfect day for a run. I set out to do what has now become the loop--a 7.67 mile run from our house and, as the name implies, back to our house in a circular route. I haven't run this distance since early December. In fact, the closest I've come to it was last weekend when I ran four. (Was that last week?) So I wasn't planning to break any speed records. Just wanted to cover the distance. 

I play a lot of mental games on long runs. One, when I know I'm not in shape to cover the whole distance running is to plan out when my walk breaks will happen. For the first three miles, it was run a mile, walk a minute, then finish out the mile in which I had walked. Repeat. At four miles, the mental game switched over to being musical. Run through two songs, walk for a minute, then run through two songs. For a while, I was walking the first minute of a 10 minute block. Then running four. Then walking one, then running four. That didn't last long, but I kind of liked that one. I also did the mental game of walking the first minute of a song, then running through to the end of the song. And I ended the run by counting telephone poles--run three poles, then walk to the next one. That was the last half mile or so. My legs were done at 6.6 miles, so I had to tough it out for the last mile. 

But it felt awesome. I was running through all kinds of agendas in my head. Teaching: Figuring out what to do with the kids this week in reading as we are starting our new program. Figuring out what to do with the kids while I'm away in Phoenix. Running: To run the marathon or not? How did I ever not like running? Baby: Heading to Nashville tomorrow. Wonder what will happen next. I bet if I sign up for a marathon, we'll get pregnant. All that and more. Oh, and I composed a message to the person who beaned me in the head with the soda can back in August. In my mind. I guess I'm still angry. 

When I got home, I crashed on my front lawn. Just laid myself out on the grass right by the road and cooled off. Thought about how much I love running when it goes like this. How much I love living here in this house, on this route. How much I love my husband and this life we are building together. Just one of those feel-good run days, which, after the last few days of just toughing it out, I really needed.