Ups and Downs

On the up side, I ran three miles in a good time for me today. All the time I was running, I was thinking about watching my children play the day before, and how hard they worked. I kept saying, "If they can do it, I can do it."

I also remembered that all pain is temporary, and that I wasn't running on my legs, really, or my lungs, or my gut (all places where my body complains); I was running on my brain. And my brain wasn't going to slow down.

Of course, fast for me isn't very. Really. I'm somewhere between 9 and 9 1/2 minutes a mile, which is practically plodding.  But it's a whole minute faster than I ran about sixteen weeks ago, and if I made it a goal, I bet I could go faster yet.

The kids played their hearts out for two games today, and got into the semifinals. That was the end of their run, though, and they ended up fourth out of eight. I haven't done the images yet, so I don't know if any of the amazing plays were recorded. Both of the girls got "layout Ds," which means they flung themselves headlong and smacked a moving Frisbee away from the waiting receiver. It's pretty impressive. Amazing catches were made, mistakes were made, and they were exemplary in attitude and effort.

Now I sit in a marginally packed hotel room, contemplating how to sprint across the country in four days. Miles City, Montana, a mere eleven hours away. Then on to Lewiston, Idaho, in eleven and a half. A day with stops, adding up to about eleven more hours to Eugene, Oregon. Then all the way home in nine hours.

Think we can do it? We'll see!