I’m just going to throw this out there.  I need to stop taking pictures with my iPhone that I’m not immediately planning to text to someone, because honestly they are terrible.  But that’s a picture of me.  Last night, after running 2 entire miles without stopping.  I was sweaty and HAPPY.

You may say, what’s the big deal, haven’t you run half marathons and such?  Not lately.

I haven’t run two miles without stopping in at least two months.  I’ve run in that time period, but not without stopping to stretch, or to hold my shoulder, or to struggle to breathe, or to struggle not to throw up, or all kinds of ridiculous stuff that I have been dealing with since probably the beginning of March.  In fact, March 1 was my last good run, according to this blog. (If you are new, you can read about my troubles here, here, here, here, and here.)

(And I had Taco Bell for dinner on Saturday night.  I’m not going to lie.  I think it may have fueled my successful workouts. Mike may disagree, but I’m going with the assumption that he’s not reading this.)

All day Monday I knew I was going to run Monday night.  I didn’t know how well it would go, or how hard it would be, but I knew I was going out there.  I was going to run a 2.5 mile loop from my house (.5 mile warm up/cool down is how it usually works). Oh, and the weather had finally cooled down from the 90’s into the acceptable range, so I had that on my side.

About halfway through my run I just started GRINNING.  I took it easy, and was going pretty slow, I think.  I didn’t wear my watch.  I just ran and tried to stay relaxed with good form.  I ran down a hill, up a hill, turned around, and ran back.  I think I could have kept going, but I didn’t want to push it, and I had run exactly as far as I planned.  It was AWESOME.

(No, I didn’t get a medal for my 2 mile run.  But it felt like as much of a success.)

I got home and texted the good news to a few people.  Mike was pleased for me and said it wouldn’t be that hard to get back to where I was.  (He did not make his joke about how where I was was still slower than walking…sometimes he is actually kind and positive…I think he just picks up on my sarcasm when I’m around.)

Last but not least.  After yesterday’s post “Concerning Blogging” I got a lot of comments (So exciting!!  Keep it up readers!!).  I get email notifications of comments and every time I read “Concerning Blogging” I thought of “Concerning Hobbits” from Lord of the Rings (of course, my title inspiration) and would start singing or whistling the music.  This is kind of a problem, as the music from LOTR is a pretty constant earworm ANYWAY.  Chris gets angry sometimes because I’ll be singing it, and he doesn’t understand why.  (I don’t fully understand either, though yesterday was logical…I guess I’ve just seen the movies and listened to the soundtracks too many times…)

Postscript:  this is the week of getting back into shape.  I’ve felt out of sorts without my 6 workouts a week…and I feel weak.  I don’t like either of those feelings, so I’m declaring this week the RETURN TO THE GYM and we’ll see how it goes.  Let’s hope my body can handle it.  Remember, May 19 is fast approaching—Benton Park 80’s 5k time!!  I’m not going to go two days without a workout again for awhile.  I don’t like that.