Running

I haven't mentioned my recent running escapades much. Maybe for fear that, like past attempts to get back in to running, it would go out with a whimper after a few weeks. Maybe because it's fun to casually throw in statements like this:

Gosh, I'm tired today. Maybe it's because I ran 16 miles yesterday.

And those statements work better when the other person is unsuspecting. In March I ran the Rex Lee Run as always (at perhaps my worst time yet for the race) and our stake had a not-quite-5K race in April. Then, somewhere around the first of May, under the influence of a few friends, I did something stupid. I signed up for the St. George Marathon. As a Washington County resident, I'm guaranteed a spot in the race. So, I've been running ever since. In the last 3 months I've run 215 miles. And spent somewhere north of 30 hours doing. Once you add in the stretching time, the cool down time, and the lying-prostrate-on-the-grass-in-a-state-of-exhaustion time, that number grows quite a bit. So, it's finally time to start blogging about what I've been doing with myself.

I've been quite surprised, really, at how easily I've been able to run longer distances. (So either I'm awesome, or I had expected it to be much harder than it really is.) Before this year I had never run further than about 7 miles. I hadn't run more than 3.1 miles in several years. Now I've topped 10 miles 7 times. As expected, the hardest part is just getting out the door in the morning. (Oh, and the heat. Let's not forget that.)

Today we ran from Veyo to St. George which is part of the marathon course. There was a head wind most of the way, and it was cloudy, so we traded heat for humidity. The first 14 miles went really well, and the last 2 seemed to have way more hills than I remember. Felt like it took forever. But I made it. 63 days until the marathon.