... Even Weeding The Garden

No energy... didn't want to wake up. Crawled under the covers when the alarm went off at 5:30 am, hit the snooze button and proceeded to dream about a lazy pancake Saturday morning with my girls and husband. THEN.. BOOM BOOM ... it hit me!

You know.. thee feeling. "Thee" feeling that all runners cherish when the alarm goes off and we contemplate the warm bed or running. As much as i love my husband and girls, the run pulls me out of bed and makes me brush my teeth, and forces me to put on my running clothes.

To make a long story short, it was a miracle. Last Saturday's run was a disaster... burning lungs, undefined pain, shortness of breath -actually no breath. In my mind i chalked it up to high elevation, but in my runners heart i thought i lost my endurance over my month long european vacation -everything i worked so hard for. I actually thought, i am unworthy of running because i am so bad at it. It was a turning point for me. A point where i thought, "Maybe i am in such bad shape, that i shouldn't run anymore??"

But, this particular mountain club run changed everything. It felt light. The hills filled my lungs with pain, but pain i knew. Runners pain. Not scary, "i can't breath" pain. It was wooooonderful! I felt like i was back in the game. I ran up the canyon with 4 magical girls, we ran towards the sunrise on a scary cliff, we got lost and took an adventurous 2 mile off road run on a windy bushy trail, and ended up back down the sunfilled canyon 12 miles later.

I ran 12 miles and loved every minute of it. Was it hard? YES - but bearable. So bearable, i can't wait for the next challenge.

Little did i know the next challenge was getting home by 9:00 am, making the girls a pancake breakfast and weeding the garden with my adorable husband and Livi.

My husband made my day when he smiled at me in wonder and said, "How can you run 12 miles in the mountains, fix pancakes and weed the yard with us for 2 hours?"

The only thing that came out was, "Because i love it." He shook his head in discernment.

What i ment to say was, "When i run, it intesifies life's other pleasures -even weeding the garden!"

My Own Calcutta: Regaining my confidence- feeling the good (running) pain again- spending the day in the garden with my girls and husband.