May The Wind Be Always At Your Back

This is me last year running the Salt Lake Half Marathon. It was my first race. My sister Melissa and ran it together. We did it run walk and it turned out to be great.

I'm registered to run it again. I'm actually pretty excited. I hoping to be at least a little bit faster than last year...

So I've been training for the last several weeks. Mostly inside due to the weather.

The other day it was almost 60 degrees, so after work, I decided to venture a 5 miler outside. One problem: I hadn't realized how blasted windy it was! I was no more that 100 feet away from my house when I decided that it was just too windy and I was going to turn around and hit the gym.

As I was walking back to my house, I noticed my friend Tracy coming toward me in her car. She was actually getting ready to go on a road ride, crazy girl. I told her that I was going to head inside and she told me I just needed to turn around and get going.

Well, there's nothing like a little peer pressure to get you going! I turned around and headed south, right into the wind. YUK! I ran into the wind for about a mile, but then, the second I turned around, I remembered that the best part of running into the wind is when you get to turn around and the wind is at your back!

So as I was running with the wind at my back, I remembered a song that I had learned in choir in high school. It was a beautiful arrangement of the traditional Irish Blessing. You know, "May the road rise to meet you, may the wind be always at your back...".

As a runner, this blessing takes on a new and special meaning. When you're running into the wind, it's just head down, one foot in front of the other. But with the wind at you back, you can look around, breathe the air, enjoy the view. Sometimes you can even feel it pushing you along. As a newbie runner, I'll take every bit of help I can get! These are the moments that turn you into a real runner, that make you long to get outside and get running.

So to all you runners out there:

An Old Irish Blessing

May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind always be at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
and rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of His hand.