100 Blog Post: Making Time To Run

Good morning!  Hope that you are having a great week.  Believe it or not, this is my 100th blog post entry since restarting my blog back in May of last year.  I've enjoyed writing this and have had fun corresponding with those of you who have been reading.  For today, a very short post.

As I was running this morning I began to think about the past six weeks.  I've recommitted myself to running and have strung together six very productive weeks of running.  Today I ran 10 miles and that brings me to 20 miles run for this week.  The difference between the last six weeks and the first three months of the year is that I've decided to take time to run.  Instead of making excuses about needing to get to work at 6:30a or 7a and staying until 5:30p or 6p and then working on work at home at night, I decided that I was getting WAY out of balance.  While I love my job, as I've noted often, there is a point where if you spend too much time doing it and become overly invested, then you can become ineffective and lose perspective.  If there are a couple things my staff team appreciates about me, it's that I'm sensible, positive, consistent, and reliable.  About six weeks ago I felt like I was teetering on the brink of not being those things.  Mainly, I was working too much and not spending enough time taking a break.  It not only started to effect me there, but it also started to infringe on Sarah and I.  She's the most patient person in the world with me, but I know I was testing limits with my constant work focus.  At one point she just looked at me and said, "you need to go for a run."  So...here I am, six weeks later and training for a marathon and enjoying running.  I'm taking that extra hour in the morning to run rather than just check email.  I'm much more productive, actually, and I think a lot more helpful to my staff.  While they never may have noticed much that I was pushing the limits of being healthy, I know I started to feel it.  And...that's why I LOVE running so much.  It helps me work toward a goal that I 100% control the outcome, it helps me burn energy, it allows me to process and think, and it just allows my body to do what it was meant to do:  RUN.

Thanks to all of you for reading my blog over the past 100 entries.  There have been over 3200 hits on this blog from 15 different countries.  I love that people read and comment and it's as much of a support to me as it might be to you.  Have a great Wednesday and happy running to you...