Monday AM

Another photo from my trip. This one is as you head south from Clifton, which is just east of Grand Junction, CO.

Yesterday after I posted and made some phone calls, I went out for a "quick" 2 mile run. At about 1.5 miles, I decided to do 3. At 2.5 miles, I decided that I could do 5. At 5, I decided I could easily do another mile and complete a 10K for the first time since the 80s. At 6.1 miles, I forgot that a 10K is 6.2 miles, and quit running. I missed doing a 10K by .1 mile! Oh well. I still ran over 6 miles. I have not done that since the 80s, when I was in my 30s. I am a little sore this morning, but not bad for a woman in her mid-fifties!

I am so grateful to be able to do this. Like most alcoholics, I have had some health problems, including a lifelong battle with the scale. Three years ago, I could not run for 5 minutes, let alone 5 or 6 miles. When I started running, I would walk up a hill near my house, and then "run" for 5 minutes down the hill. Believe me, that was enough! It didn't help that I weighed around 200 lbs. Now I weigh considerably less than that and I can run! This is such a blessing to a woman who drank every day for 18 years, smoked 2 packs a day for 25 years, huffed aerosols in my youth(among other things), had 3 vertebrae in my neck fused with bone grafts and titanium rods just 7 years ago... I thought I would never run again. In reality, it is a miracle that I am even alive.

"Now about health: A body badly burned by alcohol does not often recover overnight nor do twisted thinking and depression vanish in a twinkling. We are convinced that a spiritual mode of living is a most powerful health restorative. We, who have recovered from serious drinking, are miracles of mental health. But we have seen remarkable transformations in our bodies. Hardly one of our crowd now shows any mark of dissipation." -- Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 133