In Which I Go Running. A lot.

I've really gotten some motivation to go running lately. I'm not sure where it came from, but I've been going every single weekday, and it has been pretty awesome. My longest distance so far has been seven miles, which I'm pretty impressed with. I have a couple longer runs mapped, and, strangely enough, I'm really looking forward to them. Here's the map of my seven miler. It had a lot of doubling back in it. I'm hoping to cut that out in future long runs.

I think that one reason why I like running here more than I did back in Utah is because it gives me the opportunity to do some exploring. I've found that even if a run is difficult and really long, I don't really mind if I'm going somewhere new. Also, I've found myself logging around 25 miles a week, which is pretty fantastic. I go running with Nancy about two days a week, and we do around three miles, and then I go at least five when I go by myself on the other days. I've found some really nice, quiet places around here with some really nice views of the mountain and out to the ocean and across fields and forest. Yesterday I went 5.6 miles. Here's the map from that one:

I was looking around while I was running yesterday, and I realized that I'm really going to miss this place when we go back home. Sure, there are things that I don't like about it (but that's a different blog post entirely), but overall it's a really beautiful, and peaceful place that I really like. I think I've finally learned why people like running. There really is joy in getting out and working hard and pushing yourself to accomplish something.

However, one thing that I'll say about Jeju is that if you don't like running up hills, you're sunk. Entirely. This problem arises because the island is one giant mountain that literally grew it's own collection of smaller hills. They're awesome, though. One thing that these hills have is small, quiet roads with very little traffic, which are perfect for running. At any rate, I think I've rambled enough about how I've learned to like running. In other news, it has rained for the past two weekends, and there's rain in the forecast for next weekend. I think we're going to go hiking anyway. We're tired of being cooped up in the house. This is Captain Danger out.