Running Away

When we were driving through Pensacola, Florida in the spring of this year, I picked up a free magazine in a health food store. It contained an article about getting into shape in a short amount of time and gave several different possible routines, one of which was an interval jogging/walking plan. Soon after our return, I took up this practice and it has evolved into a habit. Do not ask me why it took a little over forty-one years for me to develop this particular habit that clearly has a lot to offer, but it did. I suppose I exercised more pre-kid and I trained for and participated in a mini-triathlon once a million years ago but this feels more substantial and like it has the legs to last. But anyway, now once a week, instead of interval walk/jog, I run solidly for 30 minutes. When it was light out, I toured the neighborhood taking several detours through woodsy areas near the house, but now I circle around a track, in the darkness.

Occasional dog walkers, garbage trucks and park clean-up personnel keep me company. I have a special fondness for the cyclists squeaking along in the dark. I leave the house around 6:00 am in the starlight, and sometimes wind and rain or fog three or four mornings a week. I never set an alarm; I just wake up ready to go. I can't explain this at all. A few months ago, I would not have believed this was me. After running, I am raring to go for the day - bring on the love, the work, the sweetness, the mundanity, the inanity, the skirmishes, the chores, the cuddles, the scrapes, the resistance, the messes. Three cheers for endorphins.