Out of Character or New Character?

I was in the kitchen this morning, looked out the window, and noticed that it was a really nice day, especially for this time of year. Then I was bummed because I couldn't just go outside and enjoy it. Too much to do inside, too much hassle to bundle up kid and dog, didn't want to drive somewhere to do something...too many excuses.

My husband came home from work during lunchtime. I hadn't known he was going to show up, so as soon as he walked in, I asked, "How long are you going to be here?"

"Just until my soccer game is over, why?"

"How long will that be?"

"I dunno. 45 minutes or something, I guess. WHY?"

"I'm going to take a run!"

I quickly got dressed (I was still running around in my pajamas), made the dog do business in the yard, and took off.

My neighborhood is actually a pretty nice area to jog around. There are three separate green spaces within a quarter mile of my house, the high school and elementary school quite near, and mostly quiet streets. Plus there are lots of trees--it's an older neighborhood and they didn't completely excavate everything when they built, like they do now with the new little subdivisions. It's actually a lot of the reason we chose this home over several others we looked at.

It does, however, make our home quite dark in the winter, especially since we have only two south-facing windows, and those both go into bedrooms.

Anyhow, I took off down the street, up one of the green spaces, across to the high school, around the elementary school, and then cut through a walkway to get home.

The dog had a record of zero poops. Possibly because I emptied her first, but that only explains why there weren't multiples, but probably also because any time she acted as if she were going to sniff or slow down, I hurried her along because I didn't want to stop.

The only "mishap" was the stairway at the cut through by the school. A dog was on the other side of the fence at the bottom, so I was yanked down the stairs. I didn't fall, but the unilateral pull on my arm was not so comfortable on the rest of me.

I used my iPod (which I know is not the best tool) to measure my distance. Since I know the distance I actually do is about 80% of what the iPod indicates, I figure I can calculate it out and be close.

Today I did 1.5 miles, without stopping. I finished it in about 20 minutes, for roughly a 13.3 minute mile. So continuing to improve, which is good.

What occurred to me later were two things. 1) It is an indication of how much my thought processes have changed since last May that the first thing I thought of when my husband showed up at home on a nice day was, "Yay! He can watch our daughter and I can go for a run!" 2) Throughout my 20s, I exercised all the time. Yeah, I had spurts of greater and lesser activity, but for the most part, I was always active. I suddenly feel like I am returning to that person.

Although even back then, I never ran.

Honestly, if I wasn't training for running events and triathlons, I'm not sure I'd be running now.

And one more thing. When I started this last May, I was in so much pain I couldn't walk to the end of the block and back without overdoing it. Then later I could, but only if I took pain medication.

Now I'm pushing myself without pain medication.

When I started this entry, I was just thinking about how out of character it was for me to get up and go for a run or that it could be a new aspect to my life. I think both of those are wrong.

I'm finally getting back what I lost over six years ago.

My way of life.