“Just put the miles behind you.”

That’s what I told myself over and over as I dragged for 4.5 miles tonight.

I feel like I’m just about to get sick and it could really go either way. I figured I’d run anyway and maybe the exercise would kill whatever was making my throat sore. I didn’t figure that I’d struggle to run at a 10:15+ pace when I had such a great track run two days ago!

It was rough and a definite bummer, but I finished, so I’m proud of that. It helped that I took a break by the Fremont Canal when I had about 1.5 miles left to go. I stretched and looked at the water. I blew a few snot rockets. I felt better after that.

I live for great runs, the ones that make me feel invincible, like my 10K.

But even though this one was pretty miserable, I was still grateful to be out there, smelling the earthy scent of Seattle in its perpetual state of spring dampness. It was nice to turn my face up to the sky and smile when it started misting rain. And only while running is it appropriate to straight-up blow snot rockets in public.

Yes, I’m even grateful for the miserable runs.