back on the horse

I really wanted to go for a run today. Needed to go for a run. As in, needed to get back on the horse after my last Wednesday fiasco.

Sandi let me know when she was leaving the hospital via bike and I waited in the driveway at the designated time, ipod at the ready, headlamp fastened to my forehead, last minute stretches being performed, waiting to see her flashing light coming up the street. You see it was 8 p.m. and I needed to get moving in order to squeak every bit of daylight out of the evening. I could have passed the baby monitor off to her like the baton. She pulled in and I took off. The relay of the fitness minded moms...

I'm happy to report my legs were not only not rusty but they had the power of a greyhound sprung from the gate. I ran and ran, hitting my stride around 4 miles, a sign I am realizing of a long distance runner, just as darkness fully engulfed me. I smiled and ran, thrilled to overflowing that I had not lost it. You see, I was afraid to admit that maybe running for me really was a fluke and my honeymoon had ended.

I came home and logged tonight's run on mapmyrun.com and finally went back and logged my last Wednesday run that I apparently was too disappointed to care enough to record. The kicker was that I had miscalculated my modified course. It wasn't 9 miles but 10.6 and, even with walking some of it, I averaged a 10:49 minute mile. Again with the perspective...

Oh, and as a side note, I now know that there are people everywhere, even on days as glorious as this one, who can get under my skin if I let them. I am such an external optimist I cannot help but think people are good- almost naively at times. I think people are fair, open-minded, and honest. But then there are people like the man ahead of me in traffic today who had a bumper sticker that said "1-23-13 Obama's Last Day" and I wanted to ram my car right into his back seat...