Some Days I Really Question Why I Run

July 22, 2011 at 2:16 pm | Posted in attitudes | 2 Comments
Tags: attitude, gem parenting, grace mauzy, running, Self Esteem, staying focused

Some days I really question why I run and you’d think that when the heat and humidity are supposed to reach unbearable numbers, and people are hot inside their air conditioned homes and I don’t have any AC, just fans in my home, and a river, pool and ocean to swim in- None at my home though- that maybe I’d think this was a great day to take off.

Then again you might think that I’d want to get out there and have a real connection run with the heat. Let it really get into my soul and stir things up.

Of course since I suggested these they are not what I did. I decided last night that I needed to get in 12 miles today to stay on task with my 60 miles per week goal to reach my year long goal of 2011 miles in 2011.

This being decided I knew that I wasn’t going to skip the day and I wasn’t young and foolish enough to want to have a connection with the heat run. So I set my alarm for 5:15 and got my self up. That was actually rather easy. It was light out, but the sun hadn’t quite come up yet.

First things first- Lyona –my dog- needed her morning outing. Easy enough- just a ¾ mile out and back. She KNEW that she was going right back home after her business- no long run for her today!

Then came the first hard moment, when I brought her back to the house and had to turn right around and take off. OK so I do this many mornings, but this morning it might have been nice to just say, “Oh its so hot I’m going in to nap- maybe I’ll run this evening.”

Whew- I did it. And yes I was already wet from the outside in from the humidity with just that short little jaunt. As I ran on I saw the sun rise. This was extraordinary. It was brilliant magenta- without even a red ball of sun in the middle. But I had my plan to be back before that sun had anytime to really get into action. I had some dream running time- that’s when I know I am going and I don’t really remember when I am in the run what is happening or what I’m thinking I just keep going. And got through Long Shore.

Off to the beach- oh it was lovely- Just a whisper of breeze. Not cooling. But somehow refreshing nonetheless.

Then it was uphill after that, which is OK with me. I like the up hills. I had purposely made my run route to have an option to head home early if it really was too hot. I’m not really interested in being in the news for having been found in a bush about to die of heat stroke.

This made for the second hard moment- I knew I could go on AND I knew there was coolness at home. I checked myself out- was I delirious? No. Was I still sweating? Yes. Was my mouth dry? No. Did I have any cramps? No. Did I really want to run another bunch of miles? YES. All that thinking took me a mile. And that was good because there were five side streets for that mile that lead straight home. I did run on the right side of the road to avoid the even easier access to those streets since they were all off to the left.

Then came a nice steep hill- Park Lane. I put my head down and ran up. Still in the shade and truly on my way home now-

As you may expect after the up came the down. And as a runner there are different ways to go down. You can attack it, let it take you, or somehow glide down without much work at all. For me the last is actually the slowest, but under the heat circumstances I took the easy way down. If you’re not a runner then there is no easy way down. You just have to do it.

Up a mile, down a mile, and onto the real home stretch. The sun was really doing her thing. It was just plain HOT HOT HOT.

The last main road till my road was being resurfaced. This morning is was a packed dirt/gravel road. I want to mention it because of the difference between the CT drivers on this kind of road and the NH drivers. Normally I think the CT drivers are more intense and indifferent about runners, but not on this dirt road. They made huge arches around me, drove at a snails pace, and made sure I was safe. This dirt road was alien territory to them. For me, I loved it. It was cooler than the road and just softer to the touch.

Ah, my street- in the shade and around the bends- Into the driveway. Looked the same to me, but I was surely different. I had made it. I had made this trip, this run, as planned, before the truly intense heat had struck, before I had to give up, before I had let any sensible sane ideas come into action.

With that thought I took the hose and doused myself for ten whole minutes to cool down. And yes I did let plenty of that hose water trickle right into my mouth.

I went dripping wet up to my room- aimed the fans on me and stretched. When done I was good to go for the day.