Recovery

Today I ran 9 miles in the woods.  I've been back to running for the last month or so, gradually working up from 30 minutes a day to today - my longest/hilliest run yet.  Despite the fact that I was running through a cloud for most of the run, it was absolutely wonderful.  Wonderful to hear the sound of my feet on gravel, dirt, and decaying leaves.  Wonderful to be surrounded by the deep greens and dark browns of an Oregon forest in December.  Wonderful to have those fleeting moments of feeling simply alive.

The past few months post-injury have been challenging.  The physical recovery has been hard, sure, but the biggest challenge has been emotional and mental.  Running has become a large part of who I am and I have missed my weekly routines of meeting up with my friends for a few hours in the woods.  When I'm running alone, running soothes me - I process my thoughts or even better, just get out of my head and breath.  Above all of that, on days like today, I come back to the thought that it is experiences like this, places like this, where I feel the most spiritual, the most in touch with something else beyond me. 

“Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in where nature may heal and cheer and give strength to the body and soul.”  ~John Muir