Day 227 - A World of a Difference

Rather than being my nemesis, poop actually was an answer to prayer this morning. 


I ran 6 miles on April 21st and then I spent the next three weeks only running once a week: my long run on Saturdays. I did another 6 miles on April 28th and then did 7 miles (my longest ever, like in my life) on May 5th with my mom, sister, cousin & aunt. Hats off to them on that run though. While all of them have been running, none had really been running more than 3 miles. So here I come along for a visit, needing to get a big 7 miler in, and ask if anyone wants to join me and they all jumped in. I kept thinking that if I were in their situation and someone, even someone I loved dearly, said, "Hey! Wanna go run 7 miles with me?" I would say, "Nope, I sure don't!" So I was so proud of them all and grateful for them being willing to go the distance with me. It was a great morning together. (And it also occurred to me that it was the first time that my mom, sister and I had ever worked out together, so that was pretty cool too.) 

The next weekend I was again out of town but still completed my run by dragging my husband along with me on his roller blades while I ran another 7 miles. I still hadn't been running during the weeks and the next week I didn't run at all, including my big run on Saturday. (That was last Saturday.) So I had to pull myself up by the bootstraps and jump in again full throttle. So Monday I determined to run. I was supposed to do 4.5 miles, but began at 10:30am, which, as I learned, is a horrible time to run in Southern Utah in May. The sun and heat completely drained me of my energy and I only ran half the time and had to cut my route short by .5 a mile. On Tuesday I was just supposed to walk for 3 miles. Thinking that a walk wouldn't be that bad in the heat of the day, I started that one at 2:30pm. I was wrong. It was just as bad, if not worse. And I accidentally threw in an extra loop on my walk around the neighborhood, so ended up going 3.6 miles. I knew there was no way I could survive another run with the sun beating down on me, or the heat, which meant that as much as I am not a morning person, I would have to be up around 5am to get my run in before my husband went to work. That was the only way. So I spent the rest of the day Tuesday preparing myself mentally for that and said a prayer before going to bed asking God to please help me get up in the morning to do my run. 


Well, come my alarm clock this morning and what do I do? I don't snooze, rather I simply turn it off and go back to sleep. Then about thirty minutes later I was awakened by some rather intense pains indicating that I had to get up out of bed and poop. And thanks to the mental preparation I did the day before of running at the butt crack of dawn, I decided to just stay up, change my clothes and get out there on my run. Interesting how prayers are answered, eh? It made a world of a difference running before the sun came up. The temperature was 72 degrees. I ran with music and no stroller. I finished my 4.5 miles at my best pace ever: 12.8. And all before the sun came up. It's been a really awesome morning since my run, having breakfast, reading, showering, actually getting dressed and ready for the day and blogging! And the kids just woke up a half hour ago. Self, please remember that running that early in the morning is a really great experience and has wonderful repercussions for the rest of the day!!


Oh yeah, and by the way... I am officially registered for the Bryce Canyon Half Marathon!!