In the last 15 weeks, I have run 73 times and covered 540 miles. There have been 15 long runs, 9 runs at race pace, 11,710 feet of total elevation gain with comparable elevation loss, except for three of the last long, Sunday runs. These runs were 20 miles long starting at 3317 feet on the top of the mountain, followed the creek down to the heart of the little town next door at 2012 feet, with 691 feet of uphill and 1943 feet of down in between.

I have run in the heat and in the rainiest, soggiest summer of recent history. I ran through ten days of food poisoning and the more recent flu-like symptoms. I ran in Chicago and on the treadmill at the rec center and I have spent countless hours circling the track in town. Most of these runs, however, have been up and down the hills that surround the place I call home.

During the first few weeks, we were moving three years of firewood from the muddy creek down below home, up to the driveway and finally to the new woodshed up above that.

Mr. Boggs had hip surgery and then Dylan took him on an overnight camp-out in the woods. Dylan got snip, snipped.

In early July, I started taping both feet for fear of stress fractures. Then I started having trouble with my right foot – it seemed my sock was getting bunched up around my toes and the pain was excruciating. I thought it was my shoe….so there were two new pair of shoes.

The last pair fit differently around the tape and my toes and now I have a little black spot on my toe nail. My right ankle started hurting. Finally, I stopped taping my feet.

This week while loading the two poodles into the Jeep, Dudley, the one that refuses to jump in on his own, jumped in on his own just as I leaned over to lift him up. His hard noggin hit my cheekbone and now I look like I lost a fight.

I sliced my finger while cutting vegetables last week and I still have the blister on my heel from the Chicago vacation.

So there’s a bruised-up face, a sliced finger, black toe nail, sore ankle, and a blister. That’s ok, prize fighters don’t always look beautiful after a victorious win either.