Running!

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I've been running again this summer.  I don't go very far or very fast, but I've been running every day and I'm starting to feel at last like I'm a runner. Last night I took some time to set up some new music for myself - with lots of my favorites from my early running days at the beginning of college.  When I set out this morning with Bring on the Day in my ears, I felt like I was 19 again. :)  (Though life has changed a bit since then, and in happy wonderful ways!)

One of the things that I love about running is how you suddenly belong to a new club when you are a runner. In college, it was my roommates, the 70+ guy at the track who raced laps around me three nights a week, a coworker at my school... Now it is the pack of walkers that pass my house as I'm returning. A man from our ward who is out running and biking morning and night. The smiling lady with her dog. Another friendly lone walker who notices when I'm running with one, two, or three kids. And of course, my kids who happily come along for the ride (Ellie and Owen) or stay home to play or surprise me with completed morning jobs (Landon).

I run pretty much the same basic route most days and vary it up with extra loops etc. There are a pair of dogs at my half way point that have always tried to wake the neighbors with their barks as I've run past. But, I noticed a couple of weeks ago that they've stopped -- now they just run up to the fence, see it's just me and quietly watch me go.

I still keep expecting as running gets more familiar and more routine that it will also get easier, but somehow it sure stays hard for me!  I'm constantly celebrating my progress, while wishing that it could be great and grand progress instead of small and simple. :)

But hooray for running -- It's been a great part of our summer!