Some time over the course of the last nine years I became the kind of person who exercises in the morning. Don’t misread – I’m still not a morning person. I have just learned to enjoy starting my day this way. The fact that this has become who I am is most evident when I don’t do it.
Today for example, I decided to run my four miles (8K training) in the evening. I started lamenting the fact that I rolled over for that extra hour this morning on my walk home from work: It’s going to be 7:oo before I’m done, this sucks. When I got home I decided to charge my phone (so I could listen to music while slogging it out on the treadmill). I emptied the diswasher. Went through the mail. Finally I left.
When I got to the gym I lamented not getting new running shoes a month ago before those calluses turned into blisters. I wished I had remembered band-aids. As I logged onto the wireless network and scrolled through my Pandora stations I thought about creating a more upbeat one. Four miles. On the treadmill.
And then the music started. There’s only us. There’s only this. Forget regrets. Or life is yours to miss.
Exactly what I needed to hear. At exactly the right moment. A chill ran up my spine and a humbled smile pulled at the corners of my mouth. I am running four miles because I can run four miles. People are having babies, mourning the death of parents and for the next forty minutes all I have to do is put one foot in front of the other.
And so I did. I took a deep breath and started running. I finished and came home. I made dinner and poured myself a glass of wine. I read good things that fed my soul and didn’t give rolling over in bed this morning a second thought. Because this is the only shot I have at today and it deserves better than that.
