Every run is hard

I finished up my training for the Top of Utah marathon on Friday - 10 "easy" miles as my last long run. Every training period has ups and downs. Having to miss a few training runs for various reasons, little aches and pains that are a worry, feeling like it would never end. I did have one perfect 15 mile run: the weather was ideal, my speed was where my plan told me to be, I didn't feel like death at the end of the run and I felt like I could actually keep going if I absolutely had to! That was one run in about 80 over the course of 16 weeks that felt great. Boy, that isn't the greatest odds is it?

So as I finished up my last big run of 10 "easy" miles on Friday, I wondered why, after all these runs are none of them ever "easy" to me? I seem to be able to push as hard as I have to, and that's about all I have to give! I'm even ready to be done at the end of my slow 3 milers. Every run pushes me and hopefully, somehow makes me stronger.

As a runner, I feel a need to relate running to all things in life! As I ran on Friday, I thought about our current stage of life. There are very few "easy" stages. When we were new parents, we wondered how life would ever be any harder. It was so physically demanding and so new. Now we look back and think how simple life was back then. And I know in the future we'll look back on these times with our boys and their various interests as some of the easier times when our worries were few. They are all in bed by 10:00 at night, we don't have to worry about who they are hanging out with and where they are, they are all doing fairly well.

But in the moment, it is a hard ride!! We are currently in the stage of hurry up and eat your dinner, we need to be three places at once in 5 minutes!! In all the hustle and bustle, it is fun to have a few "perfect" moments. Just like my perfect run, sometimes they are hard to come by, but we had one such moment on Thursday night. After running around getting everyone where they needed to be, we all ended up at Ben's soccer game together. Jacob and I showed up late and sat down to watch Ben. He was amazing!! I have never seen him work so hard or have so much fun! I had to keep checking to make sure it was him. It made all the running around, forcing kids to leave their toys to go get some exercise, and snarfing down dinner, worth it!! The air was crisp and cool, the mountains towered in the background and it was so relaxing and enjoyable.

So you see, life is indeed a marathon. Thank heavens there are aid stations along the way to keep us going and buoy us up. Thanks Ben for keeping us going and let's hope for another great run on Saturday!!! I'm about due for an easy one, don't you think?