So Catherine calls me the other day from Tennessee and asks why I haven't been blogging. So I told her it was because I hadn't been running. She didn't believe me and e-verified this fact with my husband--who for all his various complaints about my running-- actually implored her to encourage me to start back up. No one really wants to be around me when I don't run and top off that negative energy I'm so good at infecting others with when I'm unhappy. But it was true. I did in fact take 3 entire weeks off for the sake of my health and overall energy level. You know it's time for a break when you don't even miss running for 5 whole days and you don't even care when you pass runners on the street. Not even a tender moment of longing. However, I did start slowly last week running up Timpview Drive to the Cemetery, happy to discover the view of the lake and the valley from up there; and to realize not ALL of my new neighborhood sucks. Being close to the mountains isn't bad, but running on a road, in a neighborhood, not next to my river (and favorite place in the world) is--and It's been hard adjustment and my son hates my guts for moving him away from his (girl) friends. He was rather popular across town.... Among some of the things I learned while 'taking a break', is that running daily has been effective these past 8 years keeping my self-loathing at bay. When one stops doing anything at all, there is nothing special you can think of that sets you apart from the general population of other do-nothings and the sense you are a big-fat worthless piece of human waste. That 300lb. bi-polar loud-mouth you're worked so hard to suppress these past years is just on the other side of the mirror when you've stopped running away from her. Maybe we're all just 'running away' from something. (23 slow miles I posted for today is the total miles I've run since last Tuesday). | 