Believe to Achieve

Soooooo.... I  got the kids off to school and into my running clothes thinking should I go to the gym?  should I TM it?  Should I stationary bike?  ARGHHHH!!  I dislike this weather.  It is playing with my mood.  I felt depressed looking out the window again to winds and blowing snow.  Geez....will this ever end?    I then quickly changed my thinking..."that's it I am going to the JRP (Jordan River Parkway) and running up to the end and back where we started our 18 miler a month ago". The weather wasn't going to stop me.  Nor the route with the two miles of awesome incline.  Well, I did just that.  Starting out in to a great headwind.  I was thinking well that's fine I will get a tail one on the way back (the wind died down a lot on the way back, so no tailwind at all).   Started out easy and then gradually my pace was pretty good for winds, snow and rolling hills.  I was like "for real?".  The hills actually felt very easy to me, not like I remembered them.  Basically that is because the race last week prepared me for many a hill.  Bring them on now.  Can't wait to run Suncrest.  When there is a view I will get up there.  Today visibility was low.  I could just barely see the freeway in the distance at the point of the mount.  It was surreal and so peaceful on my own on JRP.  The only nut out there (until I came upon a guy strolling on the JRP, he looked normal, pheww!!, I said hi and told him I was glad I wasn't the only nut, we passed again when I turned around).  There was still that dirt to go over but it was flattened.  However because of the wet snow the dirt was all mud.  I had about 3 inches of mud  on my sneakers after running through both times.  It was at miles 0.5 and 9.5.  My shoes are currently drying out.  I will slam them together tomorrow to get the caked on mud off.  Splits:  9:12 (mud hoofing and stomping easy mile), 8:22, 8:03, 8:29 (big uphill section, but brief, keeping it real),  8:11 (good ascent felt very easy, I thought my garmin was lying), 7:21 (kept the breaks on, doing speed with Kim tomorrow),  7:31, 7:30, 7:24, 7:39 (muddy adventure again, slowed me).  This run was exhilarating.  Very easy.  Must have been my recovery run yesterday that made this possible.  No longer depressed.  Love that it stopped snowing when I got back home.  Avg pace for 10 = 7:58.