i love running

Hey friends, it's Danna. ANY TIME the three of us are together and not sweaty- we take 900 pictures to prove to you all that we are not always in buns and mutiple sweat-wicking layers.

How is your training going? So, for the Salt Lake half and the Ogden half, this week you need to run Mon and Wed for 30 minutes. Thursday go for a walk. Your weekend mileage is, SL- run 6.5 miles. For Ogdeners- Run 3. These are such do-able mileages- Just get out there and knock the miles out! Every day you run or work-out you are getting stronger and leaner.

I am reading a book called "Born to Run" by Christopher McDougall. I'm not really that far into it, but I am loving it! It's hard to reccommend a book I'm not sure what is to come, but the book is like having a cool, new running partner that has all new stories and insights, and awesome things to talk about. This week I called K at work just to read her a paragraph from it.

He talks about the primal way running is built into us. Here he is talking about a book, "The world accoding to Garp" Which I have not read, but he says,

"I keep thinking back to the way Garp would burst out his door in the middle of a workday for a five mile run. There's something so universal about that sensation, the way running unites our two most primal impulses, fear and pleasure. We run when we're scared, we run when we're ecstatic, we run away from our problems, and we run around for a good time. And when things look worst, we run the most. Three times, America has seen distance-running skyrocket, and it's always in the midst of a national crisis. The first boom came during the Great Depression, when more that two hundered runners set the trend by racing fourty miles a day across the country in the Great American Footrace. Running then went dormant, only to catch fire again in the early '70s, when we were struggling to recover from Vietnam, the Cold War, race riots, a criminal president, and the murders of three beloved leaders. And the third distance boom? One year after the September 11 attacks, trail-running suddenly became the fastest growing outdoor sport in the country. Maybe it was a coincidence. Or maybe there's a trigger in the human psyche, a coded response that activates our first and greatest survival skill when we sense the raptors approaching. In terms of stress relief and sensual pleasure, running is what you have in your life before you have sex. The equipment and desire come factory installed; all you have to do is let 'er rip and hang on for the ride."

This describes how I feel when I run. I love to run when I feel the world is out-running me. When I feel like life is out of control, I run. He is right, there is something primal in getting out and pounding your feet into the pavement until you don't feel the need to pound anymore. I love how running helps me to experience every season of the year. I love the newness and the green feeling of Spring running. I love the hot lolling days of summer running. Autumn is my favorite. The crispness of the season and the way the sun shines orange. Winter running is about quiet, and stillness, and intropection. Running is what makes life livable and even beautiful. It's presence in my everyday is evidence of God's merciful, guiding hands.

Roger Bannister was the first man to break the 4 minute mile. He once was quoted, "Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up. It knows it must run faster the slowest gazelle, or it will starve. It doesn't matter whether you're a lion or a gazelle- when the sun comes up, you'd better be running."
Have a great run today everybody!