it was uphill, both ways (9 miles)

I so wish that was an exaggeration. We started out along our now familiar Pt. Defiance route which is plenty hilly. But this time we ran out of the park and I swear, towards anything that was a hill. And I'm not kidding, there's a section of this run dubbed the "Valley of Death" by the mentors who were training last year......(I'm not sure why, but I made myself keep running until the top of the VoD and then took a minute to walk)

But I did it and felt great (or at least proud) afterwards. It is really strange, the highs and lows of running. This Saturday, the first two miles were awful -- I was tired, couldn't seem to catch my breath and didn't know where the next seven miles were going to come from. But it's always like that ("what, am I crazy?") until you find the groove. And so far, the groove has always appeared. God bless endorphins.

I'm going to buy a disposable camera though cause we ran past a gorgeous panoramic view of the sound and I thought for the 20th time that I need to take pictures during the runs.

But lest the above paragraphs seem whiny or gloomy (they're not meant to be either, just honest), my run this afternoon was great!