"The living self has one purpose only: to come into its own fullness of being, as a tree comes into full blossom." ~ D.H. Lawrence Though I love winter, I am enjoying this spring so much. The woods are filled with every shade of green imagineable! The trees are bursting with blossoms of every hue of pink, purple, yellow, and white. The mornings are cool and the afternoons are warm and breezy. Life feels rich and full and abundant.
I love the idea of following the natural cycle of life. Ebbing and flowing with the seasons. Hibernating in the cold. Blossoming and creating in the warmth. I also love the idea of running a marathon in the late spring. In my mind, these two thoughts actually do have a correlation!
I have always run a fall or winter marathon so I have always done long runs through the sweltering heat of the summer. Often, by this point in my training, I feel just about done, wondering why I thought running a marathon sounded like such a good plan. This experience has been much different. I love running in the cold weather and being able to build up my mileage during the winter months and do long trail runs in the cool woods has been heavenly. I have loved it and looked forward - for the most part - to all my runs this year. My marathon is in late May, and I really think it's the perfect time of year for me. I have been able to "ebb" or "hibernate" by doing solid running weeks, slowing building my mileage, not obsessing about running this winter. Now that it is spring, I am ready to do some really long runs, put in lots of miles in a week, and be ready to go in May. I'm ready to blossom!
