When Running

The weather report for Saturday: 

      Cloudy, with 40% chance of snow. 

My plans? 

       RUN.

What a perfect time to reunite with our old friends Michael Buble and J. Bieber, their Christmas albums, and  this beautiful earth. 

It was one of those days where you wake up, all the roommates are asleep, it's snowing outside, and you can't wait to break out the new running jacket. There are times where it's completely appropriate to want nothing but a snowy day, a blanket, creamy hot chocolate, croissants, and some T.S. Eliot at 8:00 AM on a Saturday, and then there are times where you want nothing but red cheeks, soaked shoes, and the road beneath your feet. 

I couldn't believe how happy I was. It had been a rough couple of weeks, and I hadn't expected 30 degrees and heavy snow to turn that around. I stood outside my door as giddy as Hermione in a bookstore with galleons in her pocket. 

I don't think I've ever ran a faster first mile. 

When people ask if I'm training for anything, I usually say no. And that's just because it takes to long to explain that I'm training to become myself. If I said that, they would look at me funny and punch me in the arm and say, "no, but really though." 

When I run, I figured out that I'm not running to "get fit.". If I was trying for that, I would have to stop eating all the sweets that I do, heaven forbid. Health for the soul. That's what I'm shooting for. (Chocolate cake being a major part of that plan)

But running helps me to sequester (woah. that was a tricky word) myself from the world, and not worry about the general populous. Which, unfortunately, is a big issue for me. When I'm out running, all I focus on is getting where I need to go, and getting there preferably in one piece. It helps me recognize all that I'm blessed with, and how awesome human beans are. 

To push myself to the best of my abilities is something that I love. Unfortunately, in other aspects of my life, when I'm challenged to do my best, I get butterflies in my stomach, and can't do it. I play along, laugh, crack a good joke, sometimes crack a not-too-good joke, and doubt myself, because I"m afraid everyone's better than I am at everything. Which, granted, is often true. But sometimes, it isn't, and I need to own up to what I've been blessed with. 

Running is what takes me away from all of that social pressure, and helps me see what I can really do, which, though not much, is amazing. And then, we think about using our amazing-ness to make this world a better place. (Cliche overreaching theme time) There is a whole lot of amazing here, I think that we each just have a different way of distributing it. Life is about discovering how YOU best distribute your amazing human bean-ness.  

Here's an inspirational quote for the day: 

"Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go." --T.S. Eliot

Anyways. There's a few of my thoughts about running.