Hills and happiness, hand in hand

I woke up at 5am. It was still middle-of-the-night dark out and I was tempted to roll over and go back to sleep. But who can sleep when there are hills to run and adventures to be had? So I ran to Cobb's Hill, thinking maybe I would get in two or three quick loops up the gravel hill and back down the road before work. Then I ran the loop five times and thought, if I can just do one more, it will be the most times I've ever run this hill consecutively. On my sixth time up, I passed three dudes walking down the hill and one of them said to me "Only 7 more to go!" It seemed like a sign, a call to awesomeness. I knew then that I was going to have to do another one. And I did. On my way back downhill, I ran past those dudes again and one of them said "Every time you run by us we're either walking or resting." I smiled and kept on running. When I got home, 6 miles and 7 hill repeats under my legs before dawn, still smiling from the group run/elephant sighting/campfire/taco adventures the night before, it occurred to me that this is far and away the happiest I've ever felt in my own skin and in my own life. So I took a moment to enjoy this new-found peace of mind. Because that shit was hard won. And yeah, I still have doubts, fears, insecurities. I am more than a little nervous about the Mendon 50K, about the direction of my life in general. I honestly don't know if I have the ability to run 31 miles or be all the things I want to be. And yet, part of me thinks well you will have just turned 33 and if you run the race and then add on a 2 mile cool down you can run 33 miles on your new 33 year old legs. It's official. I am insane. But it's those moments of shrugging off doubt and embracing awesomeness that remind me how amazing it is to be alive and how lucky I am to have a body and soul that are built for running and hugging and having all the adventures.

Lyric of the moment: "For all the things my hands have held, the best by far is you..."