Real David H.

I rarely run on the rain. In fact, I have often rearranged weekly runs to avoid running in the rain. If it rains on Saturday, I run on Sunday. If rains on a Wednesday, I certainly wait until Thursday. But not tonight … not my new Wednesday routine of long runs. And it’s only about 40 degrees. And I wore shorts.
As I sit here in a warm living room in dry clothes I’m thinking about what I just did. I was running with a friend, so that certainly helped, but at times it felt kind of stupid to be out there. With each puddle I stepped in, I kept thinking about how I was glad I didn’t have new shoes yet. Every time we came to a hill I thought about how comfortable being in the bed would feel. But at the end of each hill, I felt twice as strong as I did a few minutes before.

Runs like this are character building runs. It wasn’t all that fast, but it wasn’t slow either. Somehow, though, this run has made me a better person and a better runner. I just feel it, less than an hour after finishing. And, by the way, tonight’s run was 8 miles.

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And, as a side note, I did 85 total push-ups tonight. Week 3, day 1, level 3 is in the books. I did a disappointing 35 push-ups on Monday with my exhaustion test. I say “disappointing,” but it’s still good enough to stay in level 3. I was just hoping for more, but I didn’t give myself enough rest to do more. So I’ll take it.