It's All Uphill From Here

So over the last four days, I have run every single day.  As I'm running, I think of a bunch of awesome things to put in my blog and quickly forget thereafter.  Oh well, that's life.

I have been running in my neighborhood a fair bit which is pretty hilly.  I like the hills, but only the ones that go down.  The ones that go up are unfriendly, relentless, and just plain rude.  But what goes up, must go down!  Mogul has run with me on every run.  Sometimes I run up the hill so slowly that Mogul actually starts walking next to me, looks at me and whimpers a little, telling me to speed up.  He is an amazing dog.  The minute he sees my long underwear or my running shoes, he starts running around peeing all over the floor because he is so excited.  It's pretty hilarious.

The air quality in SLC has been really bad the past few days.  I ran to Stefhan's house which is only 3.1 miles, but straight uphill. That was easier than I thought.  I then tried an easier run at Liberty Park the next day, and maybe since I did the run to Stefhan's at night and the run in Liberty Park only 12 hours later, I was freakin' exhausted.  I felt like I wanted to die and it was only 3 miles.  Maybe it was that I didn't have enough time to recover after my hill climb, maybe it was the bad air pollution (or inversion), or maybe it was me just being mentally retarded.  I could make a million excuses, but I hear that is normal and at least I got out and did it.  All I know is, 26.2 is gonna be killer hard!  But I'm going to do it and I have lots of time to prepare.

I bought this month's edition of Runners World Magazine.  It actually has a Marathon Guide for first timers which was awesome.  I'm tempted to run the Disney Marathon (Melody Gray mentioned it and it looks awesome) or the Rock N Roll Marathon in Arizona which has bands playing the entire way.  I still have time to decide though.

I was also reading another blog on Runnersworld.com called "Marathon Virgin" which I highly recommend any runner to check out.  He writes about his first Marathon, as well, and he just finished the NYC Marathon.  I was suprised and disappoitned (although expected) to see that he was basically insulted and cut down by some egotistical, nose-in-the-air runners, who stated that he wasn't serious enough and didn't really deserve a blog on runnersworld.com.  I PRAY and HOPE and WISH that I never meet some runners like that (although I know they exist).  I am doing this race to FINISH and see if I can push myself harder than I ever have.  I am not running for a time and I couldn't care less if it takes me 8 hours, as long as I cross the damn line.  So check out the blog and let me know what you think.  Again, it's called Marthon Virgin.  Click it!

I've also been using a program as I run (thank you Jason Simpson) for the Cardio Trainer Application for my Droid phone.  It's awesome and I'm really happy with it.  Along with my blog, it has kept me motivated to run this week because I'm excited to try it out and see my history of miles run and calories burnt.  But remember, I'm not running this to burn calories or lose weight.  I'm running this for the mental challenge.  Anyway, if you're a runner or workout in anyway whether it be walking, running or biking, you should check it out.  It'll be worth your while.

Tomorrow I will rest as I reached my first goal for my first week which was 14.5 miles total (my goals was to run between 14-16 miles total).  I am excited to see how I run after one full day of rest and really excited to see my mileage increase.  I hope I kick some butt.  I will increase my mileage by 10% next week, as recommended through my reading.

Thanks for reading!
Charli