The Capacity To Love...Running

Today was another "long" run day - which for week two of our training plan consists of a 2.5 mile run.  It's so nice to not be running on a treadmill.  I took a scenic tour around Bala Cynwyd for this run - just running around down to the library and through side streets till I hit the 2.5 mile mark and walked back home.


It started off a little rocky - I had a few technical glitches.  For one thing, I had left my iPod connector at work, so I had a week-old playlist that was too short for this run, and had the same songs I had been listening to for last week's run, 5 hours on a plane, and 6 hours on a train over the weekend, so that was less than perfect, but at least I knew all the words to my 7 songs!


Also, I couldn't get a reading on my heart rate monitor, so I decided to forgo that metric for this week so I could get outside before the rain started here (Meliss - I guess I was luckier than you because it was just lightly drizzling for a few minutes during my run).


When I started to get bored with my playlist, and wondering yet again what the heck we have gotten ourselves into, I began to think about the book I just started "Born to Run"  by Christopher McDougall (Melissa - your copy's in the mail).  I just downloaded this book on Friday, so I'm only 28% through it (Kindle-speak), but there are really some amazing stories of endurance athletes, that make our paltry 13.1 miles look like nothing.  Overall, it's been really inspiring and I can't wait to read more!


Some of the parts that have really stuck with me are the commentary that there "must be some kind of connection between the capacity to love and the capacity to love running."  This made a ton of sense to me - not that I'm quite at the level of claiming to love running - but I do love the fact that Melissa and I are training for this half marathon to show our love for our Dad.


The other part that I've enjoyed so far, was that those who truly excel at running are those who find joy in doing so - not those who use running as a means to a cuter rear end.  


I hope that as I continue on this training journey I can find joy - if not love - in the running itself.  Until then you can find me at least loving my bright yellow sneaks.
Victoria