Today's the day

"There will come a day that you can no longer do this. Today is not that day."

Yesterday, my housemate and I ran 8 miles. Was it fast? No. Was it easy? Of course not. Did we have fun? Well....it was nice to spend some time together, I suppose, though I can think of more pleasant ways to bond.

If that's the case, why do I run?

I've thought about this a lot over my last couple of years of running, and I've come up with several reason. In reality, the reasons change depending on the season of life I'm in.

Running has been...my stress relief...my challenge...my therapy.

Running has gotten me through...busy times...down times...happy times...heartbreak...stress.

So, why do I run? A bunch of reasons, I guess. It's a challenge; it's a way that I push myself to the limit. But ultimately, I run because I love it. I run because it's good for my body and it's good for my soul. I run because I know that I won't always be able to. I run because I can.

And we're back!

Today was officially my first "long run" day. Hardly a long long run, but considering where I was a month ago, something to be accomplished. Here's the stats:

Distance: 3.1 miles (firecracker 5k loop)
Time: 31 minutes

I'm not breaking any speed records, and it doesn't feel comfortable like it used to, but it'll come back. I have two weeks before I even hit a 5 miler, so I have time. All the time in the world.

I finished A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller last night. Combine that with my current ruminations about the emergent church and a short lunch discussion about living life to the fullest and engaging culture makes for a lot of thoughts floating around in my head. Once I can concisely express them, I'll write something about it.