here is what happened when i ran further than three miles for the first time in two years, and here is what i learned while i ran them.
mile 1: eeeeeeeeeh i am so wet and so cold and so slow and damnit, tim is passing me because he is running too and he's running so faaaaaaaast eeeeeeehhhhhhhhhhhhh.
mile 2: waaaah, i'm blind because my glasses are all wet and my ipod is playing "i will walk by faith, even when I cannot see" which makes me suspicious that jesus is laughing at me.
mile 2.1: glasses off. useless anyway. i will go for three miles and then i will go back home and go back to bed.
mile 2.4: more ipod mockery. "god of creation, take my breath away.' mr. crowder, when your breath is literally taken away, you will not sound so smug about it.
mile 2.5: tim is passing me again. WARNING! "that crazy black dog that's chained up by the dip in the road is untied today!" oy vey! i will run in the other direction with great alacrity!
mile 3: i like running without my glasses! i am in a running super zen. i can't really see anything, but i'm running. i can feel myself moving, and i don't think i've noticed that before. i'm in a weird running zone where nothing really exists except me and my heart and my legs and cold rain on my hot face and lots of fuzzy, beautiful colors everywhere. there are so many sensations and so very few thoughts. i am going to go for 4 miles today!
mile 4: "your love flows like water rushing over me" - another phrase sounds a lot better in a song than it feels in real life.
mile 4.5: wherein i learn that no matter how hard it rains, you still can't catch enough water in your open mouth to stave off dehydration.
mile 5: well, now i have done five miles. but this is not as far as i could go if i kept running. if i keep running, then i''ll go farther. logically, it's valid.
mile 6: road feet rain dry mouth wet hair thump thump jennifer knapp road feet breathe in breathe out road rain WOOF WOOF! wet hill mud road rain thump thump isthatstumpabear? road feet rain
mile 6.5: oh. holy. son. of. road. can't. oh. crap. oh. crazy. legs. come. on. COME. ON. FOR. THE. LOVE. OF. ALL. THAT. IS. BEAUTIFUL.
mile 7 - i am queen of all that i behold.
mile 0: on the couch. they can bring me my food here all weekend. pretty sure i won't ever move again. three cheers for recreational running: running neither to something nor from something! the heights of ridiculousness and the pinnacle of meaninglessness! but it seems like the act of conquering the body - reigning it in, harnessing its often surprising amount of power, and using it - seems to have meaning in and of itself. Bring it.
"If you are going to win any battle, you have to do one thing. You have to make the mind run the body. Never let the body tell the mind what to do... The body is never tired if the mind is not tired." -General George S. Patton
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