Cross Country Runner

Well this is my first actual blog and I'm really excited to be writing this!  On the side of the page, one might notice that under avocations I put running.  Unless you didn't get clued in on that last sentence, this next blog post is going to be about the joys of running.
 Now, I say 'joy' lightly.  To be completely honest, there is no joy when you run.  When I run, I am hit with a series of pains. To list a few: feeling like my knees are being stabbed, the pain at the bottom of your feet/heals/toes/balls of feet whenever you put your foot on the ground, the chest aches, the cramps, and the itching in your throat that just doesn't go away.

Before you start judging about how good of a runner I am, I would just like to say I'm a freshman, and I ran close to eight miles.  I've never run more than five, so it was kind of painful, especially when one is sick.  Oh, and I didn't stop, not once; to top it all off, it's 75º outside and sunny.  This could sound like I am complaining, and all, but I'm really not.  I'm just explaining what running means.

This is me after I completed the timed trial.  Now I'm actually smiling, but the way that I'm sitting and the angle of the picture, it looks like I'm frowning.  I was tired, and I feel like a piece of my soul died, but whatever.   The reason why I put this on my blog, and why running makes me smile is because of the feeling after you're done dying.  I mean, I am SO proud of myself for running that long.  I'm feeling pretty good about myself right now, and I'm smiling right now (you can't see it, but I promise I am!).  My teammates are great and they make me smile because they're always saying "Good job, Emily!" or "You can do, just match my pace!" They always say something along those lines and it's so cool because I feel pretty amazing when I get cheered on!  Here's another set of pictures.  I'm aware that picture above and one on left are the same.  

This is the AFTER picture when I'm feeling
alive and I feel pretty good! The colors back
in my face :)

This is the BEFORE picture when I'm not
done dying. I'm still really tired and dead
feeling!

One other thing that makes me really happy (and smiley) is the shoes.  I got some pretty kickin' shoes.  They are the bom-digity.  And the best part is is that when I got real running shoes, I became a legit runner.  I'm an official runner as of a couple weeks ago, but the shoes still look pretty hip (despite running through wet puddles today)!  

Look at those babies, don't they just make you happy :) Because they make me happy!