Meditation feeling to this morning’s run…

I woke up this morning at my normal 5:45 to find very dense fog. VERY dense fog. Given the fact that it was still dark at that time and the thick fog, I could barely see more than about a quarter of a block ahead of me. Gardner is a quite, small town anyway, but at 5:45 in the morning there are very few cars on the roads and few people out running, it feels like a ghost town. The first half of my run was very interesting. It was a unique, solitary feeling. The darkness, the fog and the general quietness of the town added together to a very surreal feeling. I often like to talk about how running is as much a mental and spiritual exercise as it is physical; today that was definitely the case, in a good way. I’ve had a somewhat stressful couple of weeks with some things going on at work, my dog’s stroke and a week off of running due to injury. This morning’s run allowed me to re-center myself. It felt more like a meditation than a run. My mind was at peace in the silent darkness. Many runners talk about how they like to run because they get a chance to think things through that they can’t during the everyday hustle and bustle. I feel the opposite. I love runs like this morning’s because it is a chance to not think at all. I allowed my mind to clear, I didn’t try to think things through, I simply ran. No thinking about the route, no checking my Garmin for my speed or distance like I normally do, just me, the fog and the run. 5.76 miles in 56:24 later, I was back home. I felt peaceful and ready to start my day. Wonderful!! I truly love running.

My foot has been feeling very good, and I’ve still been following doc’s orders on meds and ice, so I think things are going well. I want to do a test run of my half marathon this weekend; I just haven’t decided for sure which day yet. Tomorrow is a VERY busy day, so that leaves me conflicted. On one hand, starting a busy, active day with a nice, long run is great. On the other hand, if I’m going to do it tomorrow I’m going to have to get up at about 5:30 to get down to Olathe and make sure I’m home in time. There are many stoplights along the route as it is in the ‘burbs, so I would need to plan on extra time waiting for traffic, even though there wouldn’t be much that time of day. My Sunday is all clear so I could start the run closer to 7:00 or so, allowing me a little more sleep, and I wouldn’t have to worry about being late for anything. The problem with that is the half marathon is next Saturday, so I’d like to have that extra day between. Right now I’m really leaning toward Sunday, but we’ll see what happens.

Happy running, everyone!!!!