12 mile long post

Sometimes I forget why I love to run. I remembered many of the reasons I do as well as some of the reasons why I forget that I do on Saturday. I have had to come to terms with the fact that I am now running buddyless. Prior to our recent move, I had been running most days of the week with my mom and/or sister for about 10 years now. But on Saturday I had to suck it up and run a twelve-mile training run all by myself. I found this really cool pseudo canyon-nothing like Provo canyon-but I mapped out a course through this canyon and through the really ritzy part of Redlands; I was actually really excited. And I am quite proud of myself for doing it all alone. I realized that as much as I love the companionship accomplished on my usual long runs with my family, there are many other things that I truly enjoy about the run itself. I love how observant I become when its just me and my thoughts; when I am forced to look at the world passing by at a much slower pace and I am all by myself, I speculate a lot more about why things are the way they are. I notice every piece of litter on the ground and wonder why it was so important that its owner dispose of that piece right then and there. Seriously. Couldn’t they have waited to find a trashcan? And this was odd: I saw no less than about 5 rear view mirrors on the side of the road. Isn’t that an important accessory for your vehicle? If it fell off, wouldn’t you want to hang on to it and try to reattach it? Apparently not. Anyway, I really do enjoy being alone with my thoughts from time to time. And it was the first time that I have really thought the lomas were linda here (Loma Linda means beautiful hill.) I ran by a seemingly endless grove of orange trees that smelled and looked delightful. I also love the constant goal making and achieving that takes place on a long run… “If I can just make it to that tree then I can take a drink of water…” or “I will walk for one minute if I can get to the top of this hill.” I won’t talk about the running metaphor for the journey of life because you get the picture. I am not going to lie though, I sometimes hate it. Towards the end I really just wanted to quit. And while I was running up a not so subtle hill on my way into Redlands, I really thought that I did not want to run the marathon again. At all. I hated that hill. And I hated how sore I started to get. And thirsty. But I finished it and I felt great for doing it. I came home and my husband, baby and dog were sitting on the beanbag watching the Simpson’s. What a nice bonding experience for them. Anyway, I love to run…mostly. Chelsea is here this week to run with me and I am going to Utah and then Idaho next week so I’ll have plenty of people to run with and it will be great. It has been so nice to have Chel here. She has been so sweet with Eli and she is such a good little running errands buddy. She loves to just do the day-to-day things like fold laundry, run to the grocery store for one item and make soup. So she comes here and does all of the mundane things that I do everyday with me and loves it! I love that about her. So things are good, we are having fun in California and we are excited to go back to Utah, go to Idaho to the ranch, and then back home to see CAM!