Running!

After about a month off, I'm getting back into my routine of taking Molly for a jog every other day. Molly is VERY HAPPY about it! I went for my first post-break run last Monday, and the night before I turned on my Garmin to make sure the battery didn't need to be charged. Molly heard the sound of the watch turn on, and immediately started jumping around like the overgrown puppy that she is. And every morning (4 times now) she makes a ridiculous amount of noise as I try to hurry her out the door before she wakes up the children. She doesn't bark, she just wiggles around and wags her tail into everything. Then when we come back and I sit down to stretch, she expresses her gratitude by trying to full-body-cuddle with me at all times. It's simultaneously annoying and cute. I'm glad she enjoys it so much, because it helps me have motivation to get out the door!

I'm really happy to have my Garmin (a Christmas present from my parents!) to tell me my time & distance as I'm learning the area here. I'm experimenting with where I want to run. I have to go before Dan leaves for work, and it's rather dark, so I don't really want to end up somewhere with no houses or traffic. I imagine if someone tried to attack me that Molly would do a decent job of protecting me, but I'd rather not find out for sure. I found a pretty good long, straight sidewalk today, and there seemed to be quite a ways further after I turned around, so that's good. Last time I ended up running on the side of a fairly busy road and had to wait at an intersection. Don't want to do that again.

When I started running last summer it was with the ultimate intention of running far and fast. Now I'm not so sure. I would love to finish a marathon someday, but it'll probably have to be mostly walked. I'm feeling pretty happy with my shorter distances. I had been running 2 miles while living in Kent, and I'm building up to that again. My run last Monday was 1 mile, then I went a little further Wednesday and Saturday, and today was 1.5 miles. I know that's really short to most runners, but it feels good for me. It actually is a really great start to my day. It's enough to get me energized without then using all that energy for running. With all the long distance runners in my close & extended family I feel a little wimpy. But I feel really good after my runs, and I don't want to push myself too hard and have that go away. I'll probably keep extending my distance a little bit at a time. I'll just have to see how it goes, and try to listen to my body. No sense in stressing about it and taking away the benefit of running in the first place!