Week 10 - Day 27 - 07.12.10 - Monday (13 Miles with hills)

The hills are alive with the sound of music. Well not today because this is my second time running the Terwilliger Blvd/OHSU hills without music. I usually start my run at the bottom of the hill at Duniway Park.

I have to say I am starting to get used to hearing the pitter patter of my feet running and my breathing. I can tell when I hit my stride or the well known runners high because I can hardly hear my breathing.

It also may be just my third time doing this same course but I am noticing the hills are getting slightly easier to run on and I like this feeling especially since the first 10 miles of my marathon in San Francisco are all hills baby!
This is also the first time I woke up at the butt crack of dawn (4am) to get ready and downtown so I can start this training at 5:30AM. Because of the darkness and other last minute checklist items, I didn’t get to start until 6AM but that is still 30 minutes earlier than my earlier runs. I hope for this Thursday’s run that I can get everything ready to go to start at 5:30AM so I have more time to run and get maybe 13.50 miles in

I am also starting to see the same runners during my run up the hill and most are friendly and wave hello and others just look straight ahead in their own state of runners high. I also tackled that SW 3rd hill that I finally took a picture of.

I literally came from a 10-11 minute mile pace to 14-15 minute mile because of it’s steepness. I decided to slowly walked down it when I did my turnaround because I didn’t want to twist an ankle or do something to my knees.









Each time I do this course I am finding out new things about myself and running.

1. I love to run early in the morning to start my day

2. I love to get lost in my thoughts when I run alone on these long runs. I usually remember fond memories of my childhood and I marvel at how my body has grown to be acclimated to running.

I may not be the fastest runner out there but I actually enjoy it. I never thought I would when I started this journey two months ago but I do look forward to my runs and like a child on Christmas morning, can’t wait to see what new milestones I have met.

I really believe that this running thing is “the fountain of youth.” Everyone I know, including my younger brother and sister-in-law have transformed into these amazing, healthy looking creatures. There is also a new zest for life that if I can do this….what other fabulous things can I do?