Long runs and homesickness.

 

I run the Mississauga Half Marathon next weekend, so I am officially "tapering" which to many runners is the golden word. 

 

 

Today my "long" run was 10k - and boy was I lucky it was a small one.  Yesterday was the first nice warm Saturday in a long time and I took full advantage of it, spending hours doing yard work which resulted in an exhausted Sunday morning.  So when my alarm went off this morning at 5am, I reset it to 5:30, than 6:00 and than dragged myself outta bed at 6:36am.

It was a wonderful run, only a handful of times in my short running career have I started a run and knew within the first few steps that this was going to be a good run.  And this morning that happened; I ran 10km without stopping or taking a walk break once - that is the furthest distance I have ever ran non-stop and it was a great encouragement in this last week before my Half Marathon.

Last Saturday was the longest of the long runs during training, Stuart, JP and myself logged 20km.  It was a new PR for my 20k finishing in 2:41!!!!  - Stuart finished about 5 minutes after me which is really amazing for someone who has only started running in the last 6 months.  He is eager and excited to run his first Half and though he swears he is never going to run again after this I wouldn't be surprised to see him register for another one.

Yesterday I reactivated my Facebook after a 5 months hiatus.  I was surprised how much I did NOT miss it during those 5 months, and I was unsure when I would re-enter the Facebook world at all.

And than I got homesick. I missed my home, I missed the lake, I missed my friends (both from home and from afar) that I do not get to see often and all I wanted to know was if Meagan had her baby yet, if Dan had beat his last PR, if Vivien had gotten married and if  Leah still remembered all the lyrics. 

Homesickness to me is an ache.  It is a dull ache inside that sometimes I swear I can physically feel.  And for some reason on Friday night, after what seemed like a really long week I dreamt about home, I dreamt about the lake and about my friends and about how we all felt like we would never escape.  I woke up thinking about these friends and memories and just feeling like such a large piece of me is still there (and with them).

So I logged back in - and saw my friends - and smiled at what all of their lives are becoming.  Full of families, and dogs, and babies and careers and husbands and wives and all the other grown-up stuff we swore would never happen.  But it did, and here we all are - with these lives that sometimes seem so close and so far from what we used to be.

I live a wonderful life.  Not a day goes by that I am not thankful for what I have here, for my home, my husband, my dog - for the undeserving Grace I have been shown or for a body that can run 21.1km's.  I have more than "ten thousand reasons" to love my life, so even when the ache of homesickness comes - I take that as a blessing; that I grew up on a paradise Island with a family that has supported me through each run, and each stage of life. 

I take the homesickness in stride (literally) and allow it to make me so much more grateful for where I have been and where I am going.....

"Lights will guide you home, and ignite your bones...."