Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Well, it's been a long time

Yup, it's been a long time since I posted anything on this blog. . . .there are 2 main reasons for that. The first being that I don't currently have Internet in my house right now and the second being that I have taken a hiatus from running and am getting back into it just now. After the DNF at CCC100, which was hard to swallow and perhaps a turning point in learning about myself and running and the value of both, I was determined to finish Pine to Palm. I didn't care how long it took me. I didn't care what I had to do to finish but just wanted to finish to get my confidence back. It had been such an unsatisfying year as far as running goes and I didn't want to end on a DNF.

So Owen, John and I drove down to Williams and did the P2P. I finished, despite lots of vomiting and really bad weather, rain and wind. But, I did it and I was ready to take time off and let my running issues heal and take a mental break from hitting my head against a wall.
A few months went by and I started to get the itch to run again. In the interim, I did lots of swimming, yoga, pilates, eating, cooking, hanging out with Struth and reading, relaxing, putting my feet up. Also, had a beautiful trip to the Enchantments!

Now I am back at it and refreshed mentally and physically. I'm actually excited about running again and don't feel too much pain in that nagging leg. I still have to stop once on most runs, but it goes away and generally, doesn't come back for the rest of the run. How peaceful, how delightful, oh how I missed running without pain!
I ran the Ghost of Seattle Marathon 50k at the end of November and felt pretty good. I hadn't run that far since the P2p. I went about a mile out of my way and had a slow start, but managed to squeak by just under 4:50. It was after that run that I was itching to get back out there and run. So since then, I've been putting in some miles and even though most of those miles have been in the dark and the rain, they have been fantastic. Fantastic! Next up is Bridle Trails 50k. I've never done that run and am looking forward to a muddy run. So, as the end of 2010 is approaching, and quite quickly, I close the year with many lessons learned. As the saying goes, patience is a virtue, I truly believe this.
In the meantime, Happy Holidays from Struth and me!