Up and Running, Again

After three weeks of not running, I started up again last week and it felt good. Sure, I still can't run half a mile without needing a break (I have a long, long way to go before I reach half-marathon potential) but I'm seeing improvements.

This morning, I took a different running route. For the last several months, I've been running up to and around the Panhandle. But, as the sun is rising later and later, it's been getting darker and darker when I wake up a little before 6am to go exercise. This morning, rather than run around the poorly lit and wet Panhandle, I headed north toward Japantown, along the route I took when I first started running in January (I wasn't so good at sticking to my new year's resolution then but am much more motivated about it now).

I remember being able only to run a block and a half before getting winded and feeling like throwing up. Now, I can easily run that block and half, and went on passed it. And, the only reason why I felt like retching this morning was at the stench of rotten garbage. I did my old loop once and went around to do another half loop. As I walked up the little hill back to my house, I decided that, as fall approaches, I'll give up my Panhandle run for this Japantown one and that I must remember to write my name and contact info in my shoes, in case something happens to me as I run in the dark mornings through Western Addition.