The continued prayer is, “Lord keep me focused. Keep my mind stayed on You. Help me to bring You praise. I know You believe in me. Please help me in my unbelief. Amen.”
Tonight’s run was a long awaited treat. I fully intended to go alone, but I knew that I would lose all my daylight before I got home, so Chris insisted that I take Sarah with me. She was literally whining with delight and frustration that I was taking so long to get a move on.
So I threw back a Cliff Bar, filled up my CamalBak and went out the door. I set my phone to RunKeeper and turned on some good music.
Before we took 20 strides, we ran into the first dog. First of many, and the way Sarah reacted, you’d think we never let her out of the house. Jeez! So I’m pulling and scraping and trying to get her under control with just a word. It could have been worse. She’s pretty excitable but more than anything, she really seems to want to please us, so she regained her focus and we were off again. Before we got to the half mile mark, we had run into 4 sets of dogs. I was kind of hoping we had missed most of the dog walkers, but it really seemed that I had hit peak hours.
Needless to say, by the time I got to the 1.75 mile mark, I was already feeling pretty well beaten up. I was running harder and faster than I wanted to because there were so many instances where I had to sprint to get us quickly past some dog who Sarah just *had* to sniff or mount. I kept her leash locked and pretty short, so I had to sprint along with her for most of the run.
I was putting far too much pressure on my AT and I knew my knee was going to give me some serious trouble when this was all over.
At about the 4.5 mile mark, I am feeling a sting every time I plant my left foot. I knew I messed myself up and I was going to have to rest for several days after this one, but at the moment, it was worth it and feeling pretty good.
At the 6 mile mark, I took a longer walk break. It was completely dark at this point. I was wearing my vest and had turned on my LED lights and I wore my new high visibility cap. Still, I had to wave a few cars down to avoid being mown over by someone making a right turn in one of these monstrous SUVs.
When I had a quarter mile to go, I turned on “Fighter” by Christina Aguilera and started a mad sprint toward home. Ooohhhh…… that felt good.
I know I’m going to pay for it later. I know I need to throw back some Advil as soon as get home, but at the moment, I’m feeling good! This is why we run. This feeling is worth the pain later and worth the fortune we spend on Gu, Cliff bars, Body Glide, registration fees, shoe inserts and pain medication.
The obsession is real and irresistible. I could never do drugs, drink excessively or hurt myself with blades or needles. No tattoos for weird piercing for me. But I absolutely understand pounding the stress out of my body and glorying in the pain that it sometimes brings.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t like pain. If a pair of shoes or earrings caused me pain, I’d never wear them again and even in running, I take my rest periods *very* seriously. But this pain reminds me that I’m alive somehow. It’s a good feeling.
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