Day 7

Wow, I'm cold. It's been a cool day today and rainy. I put off my run until early evening, and now, post-run and still in damp clothing, the shivers are setting in. I was going to settle for a pace similar to yesterday, but I blazed through my first mile in just a little over 8 minutes. By the second mile I was somewhere around 16:30 and of course, that last mile was almost all uphill. So I decided to fight. I love the feeling of speeding up a hill with great form. Although my breathing may be audible from some good ammount of feet away, I could care less. I feel so alive, pushing old air out and bringing new air in, air that will allow me to work harder and go faster. There are no doubts in my mind today. I felt strong.

Days 3, 4, and 5

On saturday I went for a nice little three-mile run, and the rest of the day was a whirlwind of activity. Yesterday I took the day off.

Tonight was another night though, in which I flew. I wanted to wear just a sports bra. Pretty daring thing for me to do, right? Well I decided against it. Maybe next week. I weighed myself on Saturday and you know, I think that scale was lying. It said I was 125.5. I swear I'm a pound and a half more than that. I hate when scales do that.

The air was cool tonight and the humidity low. I had my favorite training partner, my Garmin watch, continually pushing me to go faster. Up and down the hills of suburbia for just over four miles I ran, sprinting a little here and there to see what I was capable of this early in the season. In my head were reels of fantasy footage of me racing in a 5K, trailing the lead girl the whole race, and then catching her off guard, sprinting into the finish and winning. I feel so alive right now, my lungs so clear from the fresh summer air mixed with laundry detergent.

Tomorrow morning I've got a six-miler on my plate. First one of the season. Bring it on.

Day 0

What inspired me to write this blog was the impending date of my first race of the 2010Cross Country season. I, until I looked at a calendar, was convinced the race was on September 1st. I was wrong. I'm pretty sure the race is September 3rd. None the less, on a beautiful run last night I felt inspired to do something great. I wanted to be someone inspiring on my team, or atleast someone who could finish well, score points, and kick some Lafayette butt. Being inspiring would just be a bonus to all that. I've always found that, even if no one else is listening or watching, if there's the possibility of such, I have a higher success rate. So hooray for internet posting!

Oh, and the name? Well, since I don't like the heat and I've been doing my first few runs of the season at night, I've been watching the fireflies. When I was younger, I used to run around just for fun, chasing butterflies and fireflies. That's another thing I want to do this summer. Make running fun for me again. My first year of college nearly destroyed this notion. So that's why I'm chasing fireflies- to remind me to have fun.