A Whole New World

Sometimes the sheer beauty of this country amazes me. Ted and I arrived back from Montana on Sunday...it was a busy week, with a trip to Yellowstone, a run in the park, and sight-seeing...all before the big wedding day of Jack and Robin.

While this picture is not on a run, but rather on the Beartooth Passage on the way to Yellowstone, it provides a good idea on what we saw. We ran on some biking trails in a park near our hotel. The mountains were visible from everywhere...it was beautiful! The thinner air caused only slightly slower times...the real culprit was the delays in arriving in Billings. The original 10:30 pm landing was changed when we didn't take off from Philly until midnight...thus leading to spending the night in Minneapolis' airport and arriving the next morning, exactly 12 hours after our original land time.

The area is absolutely beautiful. Our run allowed us to see many of the local animals. Fortunately, it was limited to those smaller than us, and those who did not view us as dinner. Unfortunately, this category included snakes, which did cause our little run to be cut extremely short, thanks to me. I'm not exactly a snake person. Mice, rats, spiders, I'm fine with. Snakes--nope.

Looking forward, I have found another marathon training plan that I think seems good and manageable. I'm looking forward to having a schedule again, something that tells me when to run and how far to go. And after a week of late nights, restaurant food, and way too many beers, I could use a good kick in the butt to get started. There is a local 5-K in a few weeks that I had wanted to do pretty well in, which means I have to start picking up the pace and forget about the easy jogs I've been doing.

Back to the whole point of our trip to Montana--the wedding. Isn't she a beautiful bride?