Hills, hills, and some more hills

I ran over to The Hill (tm) today. If I run from my house to the top and back again, it's 3 miles. The hill itself is 1/4 mile of that (well, 1/2 a mile to go down too...anyway, you get the idea, it's a freaking big hill, and steep too).

I started intending to run it 3 times, making an even 4 miles. I ended up running it 7 times.

So I ran 6 miles today in just under an hour. But 3 miles of that was hills.

When I get overwhelmed by various demons that haunt me (usually guilt over the fact that if I'm writing enough I'm not planning/teaching/grading enough, or the other way around, but occasionally just general feelings of depression), the best thing I can possibly do is to run on a hill.

My family (on Dad's side) tends strongly toward bipolar disorder, and there's some history of other mental illness (of course, I blame that on the fact that the woman in question had 5 pregnancies in 6 years, but that's another issue). I've managed to keep my own depression under control with diet and exercise. I'm really grateful that that's been the case.

I can always tell when I'm eating wrong or not running enough, because the demons come back.

For today, they've been banished far, far away.