but oh so worth it...

I meant to add that to the end of my last post. I love running. It truly is my stress release. It's my time to think, pray, dream, forget, let-go, sing (okay, not outloud, that takes too much energy ;) ), just whatever I need to do. I started running when I was in Grade 3. My parents put me in track when I was 8 years old. I continued with it until I finished high school. Most of my friends were from track during that time. We spent a lot of time on the road, traveling to and from track meets. I have a lot of fond memories from that period in my life. When I went to university, for my first year, I competed with their cross country team. My second year of university I went to a different university and was training for the cross country season, hoping to try-out for their track team but unfortunately I injured myself and stopped running for a period of time altogether. During that time I re-evaluated why I ran, what I wanted, who I was, etc. It had always been a dream of mine to go to the Olympics but I decided, with some sadness and a sense of loss, that it wasn't meant to be and I needed to decide if I wanted to continue running at all. Thankfully, I started to miss it - A LOT. And I realized that running was something that had become such a huge part of me, a part of who I was, that I needed to start running again. So I did. And I'm still running. But now I run for me, for fun, for exercise, and for lots of other reasons too. And truth be told, it's not always easy to get out for a run. There are lots of days when I would rather stay inside, do other things, make excuses, be lazy but when I actually get out and start running, I feel so much better. And there are also days that running is hard, I'm out of shape, can't go as far as I would like, feel like I'm pulling a trailer behind me, have trouble breathing but I keep going because I know those days are few. There are many more days where I enjoy my runs, where I experience peace and satisfaction and just feel so much better because I ran. So I keep on going.