CAR UP. CAR BACK. ICE. CLEAR.
It was about this time last year that I woke up on a Saturday morning to those words. I had a few choice words on my own I wanted to use. My house is on the route of the Northside YMCA 10k Training team. Who in their right mind would wake up so early...on a Saturday...in the middle of winter to go run? Idiots.
Well, today, I'm proud to say that I am one of those idiots. There are some days (most days, rather) that I can't wait to move away from Richmond. It's too big. I miss the mountains. Etc. But today..as I was running up Wilmington Ave. (at the halfway point..coincidentally right by my house, too), talking with Theresa (finally someone who runs at a similar pace!), I fell in love. I fell in love with Richmond. I fell in love with this new community I've found. I fell in love with running. This new love pushed me through the ice, through the traffic, through one, two, three, four, five miles. After almost two weeks of not exercising at all, I was incredibly nervous and dreading my run this morning. As Theresa and I were chatting (me, without a lot of breath), we decided that we would run 6. My novice group was only running five (remind me to talk about the fact that there were only THREE of us with Al in the Novice group). I was feeling good (you tend to do that after you fall in love, I think), and we decided to keep going. I knew if I stopped, I'd probably collapse. But we ran. There was no walking. There was no crawling (until we got inside). I experienced my first runners' high. It was incredible. Might I say, even better than the drunk feeling. We'll see if the soreness is better than a hangover. I'll let you know.
As part of my Lenten discipline, I'm working on what it means to be comfortable in your own skin- today helped me. Today helped me learn to love myself a little more... it's a pretty awesome feeling. What do you do to help feel comfortable in your own skin?
