Life in transition, part II

I’ve been radio silent for the past few weeks as Tony and I packed up everything we own into a ginormous U-Haul and drove 110 miles north to a place that I simultaneously know very well and  yet feel like a stranger in.

My body gave me the signals that this was going to be an arduous journey long before I started to take it. The real heavy lifting, the hard goodbyes, the acknowledgment that life as we knew it in that time and place is over — that happened in the last week but I felt it long before the moving truck arrived.

This is a blog about running.

Running has given me such powerful tools to endure stress. Running has taught me

…  to find my happy pace.

… to make deals with myself to keep going.

… to celebrate goals.

… to breathe.

… to listen to my body. I have a job where I tend to live in the intellectual, and it’s tempting to tune out the physical. Running has taught me to live in my four rooms.

… that it’s easier with friends.

… that nutritious food and rest heal all aches and pains.

… to spend as much time as I can outside.

… that life is not the destination, it’s the journey. 🙂

If I had to only say one thing about the past week (lucky me, I have a whole blog and I can say as much as I want!) I would say that I have felt overwhelmed and blessed with the incredible friendship and love and generosity I’ve felt from the community I left and the community I came to. I could never has asked for better friends and co-workers and family.

We came back to Lewiston last weekend to move a few more boxes, go to a concert and — yes— run a race on Sunday morning.

Ace Sun Journal photog Daryn Slover catching my good side. :)

Ace Sun Journal photog Daryn Slover catching my good side. 🙂

It was the first of Lewiston-Auburn’s Triple Crown 5K series, the YMCA Fit Fest. My race goals have pretty much gone out the window in 2013 (though in looking at them now, I’ve stuck to a lot, considering). I was aiming for a sub-24 5K and I finished in 24:05. It’s still a PR  but it was short of my goal that day. But you know? Considering everything, I actually feel pretty good about that. I can’t think of one thing I could have done differently toeing the start line that would have given me a different result. And the things I could have done before I toed the start line, well … racing isn’t a priority right now, and it probably won’t be this year in the way that I thought it might when I wrote my 2013 goals.

 

 

Pattie Reaves

About Pattie Reaves

I'm a new mom and renegade fitness blogger at After the Couch. I live in Brewer with my husband, Tony, our daughter Felicity, and our two pugs, Georgia and Scoop.