Best Run Ever.

I am ashamed to admit that I haven't been running since my last entry eight days ago. I had planned on going last week on Thursday or Friday, because my brother was in town and he was going to go with me, mainly so I could show him how to properly run in Vibrams. Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate, and for some reason I just couldn't get motivated to trail run in cold misty rainy weather.

Today, however, I harassed J into getting out of bed at a semi-decent hour. He had said yesterday that he wanted to run this morning, and since I was getting antsy about the fact that we hadn't been running in over a week, I held him to it. We decided that today would be a good test for the new bug spray that we bought. We are testing "natural" bug sprays for our outdoor wedding next summer... we want to supply something for our guests that won't be disgusting. I figured that spraying the stuff on before we go running through the woods would be a good test, since there are always mosquitos buzzing around regardless of the time of day.

We headed out and did our usual leisurely walk to the park. I was a little bit nervous, since I hadn't run in over a week, that I would have lost some of my endurance. We started to run, and I was very happy that J was able to keep up with me. The last time we ran, shortly after he was sick, his natural pace was dramatically slower than mine and I had to leave him behind very early on in the run. Today, however, we ran together and we made it to the end of the first trail (0.7 miles). By the end I was about twenty feet ahead, but I was so proud of him for running as far as he did. It was more than double the distance he had run the last two times we went out. I could have run farther, but since he was more than done, I stopped so that we could walk and recover together.

We decided to walk up a new trail today that I was told would lead to the top of a "mountain". More specifically, it is labelled on a map as Mount Such-and-such, and I was pretty skeptical about what exactly we would find. I was glad that we decided to walk, because the path was much more rigorous than any we had run on before, and not just because of the incline. There were a lot more rocks, so it would have been very difficult to run. All of the trails up the hill were connected in loops, so we just arbitrarily chose which ones we wanted until we made it to the top.

The view was magnificent. I wish that I had brought a camera and sunglasses so that I could have tolerated being up there longer. The entire Boston skyline was in perfect view. I had no idea that such a viewpoint existed, especially so close to our house. The drawback, of course, was all of the shattered glass and other garbage all over the place. Clearly, young hooligans had discovered this place long before we did, but the view was simply stunning.

We walked back down, taking a bunch of different trails on the way down. I asked J if he was planning on running again. He was hesitant, but said that I should just tell him when I was ready and that he would see how he felt. I was ready to go again once we made it back to the main trail, and told him so. He decided to give it a shot and we started off again. We ran down the hill, past the children eating freeze pops on the rugby field, through the parking lot, and all the way back down the paved road to the entrance of the park. J stayed by my side for the entire 0.5 mile run back to the park entrance. I was so excited and proud of him! We found a pace that was perfect for both of us, and we just ran.

It was really nice to having a running buddy, because we were able to motivate each other to keep on going. What they say about running being a mind game is so true. J said so himself during our walk up the hill. It really is amazing what you can push your body to do when you want to.

Our dear friend who was the catalyst for all of this running suggested that we all run a Tough Mudder together some day. I told him that if I ever build up the stamina to run 12 miles, I would totally be into it. Until then though, my goal is still to run a mile without stopping. I'm not sad that I didn't run as far on the first stretch today... I consider today to be the best run I've ever had. It was so unbelievably great to run the entire distance with J and have him feel as good afterwards as I do. We are hoping to go again on Friday... we will see what happens!