Real Life Running

And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music. - Nietzsche


4:00AM. My alarm goes off. Normally waking up at 4am would leave me tired and groggy and mostly one cranky girl that no one should talk to until a minimum of 3 cups of coffee have been consumed. Not today though. Today, waking up  at 4am is OK. Today I'm glad to be awake.


4:45 Hop onto bike and ride to Physical Therapy in the semi-darkness.


5:00AM-6:00AM Physical Therapy. 


At the end of physical therapy  my therapist and I started talking about what I should do. I had done a couple of runs in segments--you know the old run/walk routine.  This time, however, he looks at me and goes "3 miles Go run a 5k. "


I leave and I'm all excited that I get to try running again for real. I pull up to my super secret run-walking-where-nobody-can-see-me spot and get off my bike. "Go run a 5k". I know my therapist said this without realizing what it meant, but what it meant to me was that I FINALLY get to run the 5k that I was supposed to run at a last-chance track meet 2 months ago. I know it's not the same and it's not technically a race. However, it is still a 5k. 


I like to think that I'm really tough, but when I realized what I was about to do, that I finally got to run my 5k, that I was really going to run, I got really choked up. 


I forgot what a real life run feels like. 


I need two puffs of my inhaler (thank you asthma.) I always start off too fast. I always have. I probably always will. So about two minutes into my run I pull up a little bit. I have to remember to take it easy because well, I am injured after all....I mean I was injured. 


I forgot what it feels like to change your stride. And I forgot how dry your mouth gets while you run. There are little twinges in your legs letting your body know what's going on for the first couple minutes until you ease into your pace. You get so hot while running. In biking there's windchill and in swimming the water is usually cold. I forgot how hot running can be. I forgot what full-on 100% gravity feels like. I forgot what the grass feels like on your toes and the way the ground feels when you step in mud. I forgot that your shoes get all soggy from running through the the morning dew. I forgot that when you run barefoot your feet get full of grass clippings and turn green. I forgot that the sunrise looks that much better when you're running. I forgot the tiredness, the feeling of completeness.I forgot what it feels like to fly across the ground.


Some wonderful groundskeeper came and turned on the sprinklers for the last few minutes of my run as I completed my last lap around the fields.


I forgot what it was like to be in love with running. 


Thankful for every minute. every step.