This has been a week of epic proportions in my home.

My four year old strolled down the aisle during preschool graduation, making that change from little girl to kindergartner.

Too fast. Blink, and it is gone.

I posted about it here. I won’t go into it all again. But still, life passes quickly.

My mind has been on her graduation, a friend’s upcoming wedding, my mom’s birthday . . . a lot of stuff! So I missed my regular posts. I had a great question of the week; now I forget it. I’m sure it will come to me again.

In all of this I have hit some strides in running. I gave up my Garmin for a few runs this week. I thought, I know how far it is: Why wear it? And so I didn’t. I didn’t know how fast I was running, just that I was running. One time I did want that watch. I knew I was flying, my shoes lifting off the pavement catching air. I was soaring, and I wanted to know just how fast I was going.

But it didn’t matter in the end. I made it home. I broke a sweat. I just ran.

I gave up a day of running, too. It was my X training day, I would do a few miles on foot and then some on bike. I decided that the foot part was really burning me out. Five days of running right now is a lot, so I dropped it. Instead I picked up another mile or two on the next day, when I would have run a little less had I run that fourth day. It worked out. I’m down a mile or two each week, but does it really matter?

Maybe it’s the rain that has me so melancholy, but the fact that life passes quickly has caught up with me.

My daugther was a baby. Now she’s going off to school.

I spent a lot of time in the past five years worrying about things that didn’t matter. Stressing over whether or not breast or formula was best, if she was getting enough to eat, if I should let her watch half an hour of television each day, if she should wear long sleeves in cold weather though she is never ever cold.

I would stress. Then I would run.

My running brought me through these past five years, among other things. Putting on my shoes and getting out there, that is the point – not so much how fast I go or how far I go, just that I go.

I ran through the birth of two daughters. The death of a great aunt whom I loved. The death of a wonderful friend whom I thought would always be here. My mother’s stroke. I ran through medical issues with my second daughter and colds and flus they both had. I ran through rain and ice and heat. I ran 26.2 miles, not once but twice. I ran through baby days and preschool graduation.

I just ran.

I hope you all are going out for a run on this soggy weekend! If you feel you can’t, remember you can.

Remember you can and you will feel so much better once you do.

Life goes by quickly. Don’t pass on a good run!