Sad. But happy!

The Boston Marathon was everything I expected it would be and more!  The crowds were out, the people were cheering, the runners were happy (well, most of them anyway).  And the elite runners!  Wow... they are crazy-fast!  The elite men were doing 4:25 minute/miles when they passed us at mile 22.  FOUR MINUTE TWENTY-FIVE SECOND MILES!!  Who are these super-human guys?!  And seeing the women fly by in a tight pack of three was exhilarating.  I wish I could've seen the finish! 

What an awesome day.  But also not awesome at the same time.  I haven't been on a run in nine long days.  What is the worst thing you can do when you LOVE to run but CAN'T??  Go watch other people run.  I felt like my heart was being trampled as each runner sped by.  But I still had a great time.  And I'll be back at running in no time (I might even try running this week).

Someday I'll get excited to run marathons again.  After running 11 marathons and 3 ultra-marathons... I burned myself out on training for races.  I just want to run for fun right now.  That's all.  Just head out the door and run whatever feels good.... fast or slow.... 5 miles or 10 miles or none at all.  Someday I'll get that fire back and want to race again.  But for now, I'm enjoying going on runs because I love to... not because my training plan says I have to.

Do you ever get tired of racing?  I loved training for and running races but then suddenly (after my 53-mile ultra) I was just done.  I'd lost my love for running and I didn't like how that felt.  I needed to get back to the basics.  So I let myself stop racing.  And I fell back in love with it again.  I'll race again someday.  In the meantime, I'm running for the fun of it.

What is Patriot's Day celebrating anyway?  And why doesn't the rest of the country celebrate it?  I'm sure Wikipedia could answer this for me... but I thought I'd see if anyone else knows!