Good Day, Sunrise!

Today’s Numbers: Nancy's Days Run: 41 Nancy's 2013 Mileage: 144.1 Elly's 2013 Mileage: 73.1 Money Found For Food Bank: $15.41

Today's run was a lesson in never, ever giving up when you oh-so feel like it and in trusting things will again turn around. Spoiler alert: This was the best run I've had in months. MONTHS. It's not because I was so fantastically fast or went a huge distance. It's because the pains in my back-legs-beeeehind weren't present, I was mostly awake, and I mentally felt like going.

Ahhhh ... it's been a while!

It's also been a while since I've seen this:

Goooooooooood morning!!

Thanks to today's spring-forward action on the clock, I was up and out at the perfect time to catch an awesome sunrise! I turned the corner of our street and literally gasped seeing it. It's not just that it's been a while since seeing this, it was just that beautiful! So pretty, in fact, I had to take another:

I was feeling all artsy with it there behind the trees ...

You can guess I had no trouble inspiring Elly to join me today (Duh. It is always her plan in the morning to go out on an adventure regardless of what I think.). As soon as my feet hit the floor from the bed, she was all up in my biz letting me know she was joining me!

"Herewegoherewego HERE. WE. GOOOOOOOOOOOOO !!"

There was nothing about this morning's run that excited me yesterday. Between the way I've been feeling (like a slug sounds about right ... a slug in some pain ...) and the fact that it was lose-an-hour day, I was working hard to make excuses to take the morning off. But, I realized in my first quarter mile that the best thing I can do almost every morning is get up and move. I felt better in those first few minutes of this morning than I felt all of yesterday. I attribute that to the fact that I worked hard yesterday on sleeping in instead of just getting up when it was clear I wasn't falling back asleep. Something about that very (in)activity set my day up to be something of a physical downer. But, every day I run, I feel good for the rest of the day.

I guess there's something to this running thing ...

It was about a half mile in to this morning's run when I realized the pains with which I've been wrestling weren't as prominent as they have been. In fact, I could barely feel any of it. So, I made the decision to imitate Elly and purposely put a spring into my step (she's a good leader by example) to have a little more fun. Just that little bounce put more life into what have become some pretty heavy shuffle steps. And, my optimism returned!

I'm very hopeful that the tides are shifting to where I can just go out, run and not make it such an ordeal, mentally or physically. Or, both. I have missed just enjoying! Along the route this morning, I thought about and remained convinced my upcoming Half will be of the site-seeing variety, but if it feels as good as this morning's run, it will be really fun!

In between my musings about the upcoming run and watching Elly happily bound toward every fascinating new sniff, I managed to find 39 more cents for the Food Bank. That includes a dime Aaron found as we walked to the car at the spot where he picked me and Elly up. Both rank as big Pit Crew contributions! Woohoo!!

For tomorrow? I still need to figure that out. This whole week is messed up schedule-wise, so I have to sit and ponder and plan what's best to do and when around that 10-miler moving target! If I do end up running, the pooch will come me, so we'll both check in. And, maybe I'll have another awesome hairdo like I wound up with today ...

"Um, mommy ... what happened to your
hair up there ...?!"

Enjoy the rest of your weekend, and I'll check in tomorrow!