I. am. a runner.

This is a post in real time, because I am too excited. And any faithful reader who has hung in through all my butt picking, breast bouncing, uphill plodding "runs" deserves a little lightness from me.

As you might know, my running has been splotchy of late, in some part because Tony's grandmother is engaged in dying right now. (That's not the light part). So last night (for real), by the time we got home and had dinner, I had only time for a twenty minute outing. I decided that I must make the most of it. I didn't want to drop the amount of running I was doing (fifteen minutes), so I crunched the numbers, and came up with a 3 minute warm up, 8 minute run, 2 minute walk, 7 minute run. Since I took the two weeks off, I knew this was ambitious, but ya know, I am just that kind of woman.

I have learned that if I assign myself a topic to think about, the time passes easily. Some of the things I have considered: I have built some characters for a book I am thinking on, written amazing blog entries, planned all the baking I needed to do for the Spring Fair at B's school, and listed all the things I like about Tony. Brown. Just kidding. I knew that I when I said I was thinking interesting thoughts, you all wondered what I was thinking - well wonder no more, now you know. So I assigned my topic (should I stop watching TV/using the computer recreationally), and the first five minutes went by fairly easily.

When I looked at my trusty timepiece, and saw that five minutes had already gone by, I decided I would run as long as I felt okay - thinking maybe ten minutes. I finished my first loop, started round my second, which was downhill. That gave me my spirit back, and I set a goal of running the entire time. Near the end, I hit the steepest uphill. Although various body parts were complaining, I actually felt okay. I told my body to quit its whining, and just keep going. And here's the best part - it did! As I rounded the corner to my street, I slowed to a walk. I have come full circle. For the first time since the initial week, I ran the short loop by house. At that time, I ran six one minute sessions. Last night, I ran the entire time, for a total of sixteen minutes.

What does this mean for you, you ask? Well, it means that whenever I refer to a run that happens after today - I will no longer use quotes. I think that is deserving of being called a real run. Don't you?