Everything Always Looks Better After a Run
FishaDad
As I drove home this morning I was thinking to myself, do I run now or after I wake up. I usually like to run in the morning that way it’s done and I can wake up an relax. Also it gets dark so early now that I have trouble getting a decent run in before dark.
I had been in early for work last night. The FSCEMS Academy that I am in charge of is winding down and we had to do graduation practice from 4-5 pm and then from 5-10 they participated in what has been named "Hell Day" by the students. This is a day filled with medical scenario after medical scenarios complete with difficult medical and trauma situations, violent patients, and screaming, annoying, and disrupting bystanders. If that was not enough just to add another element we add instructors yelling at the students the entire time. It's extremely difficult for the students but are much stronger afterwards for having done it. So I had been awake since 2pm the day before and very tired. Needless to say I chose the sleep over running.
When I woke up at 3pm I played the snooze alarm game for about a half hour and finally dragged myself out of bed. My first thought was why did I not run before I went to bed? I'm so tired and wish I was already done. I pulled on my running clothes and started stretching. I headed out and after my warm up walk which is about a half mile I was off and running by 4pm. I felt pretty good while running. It was cool so I wore a light jacket but that’s all, I was still in shorts. People must be used to me running because I had a lot of people waving and honking as they drove by. Or maybe I was just in the way as they tried to drive by. I tried a few times to pick up my pace but kept falling back into my normal slow pace. I finished the run and looked at my watch, I had Ran 5 miles in 58:48 @ 11:46 min/miles pace, weather was cloudy, temperature around 36 degrees. Once again I fall back into the 11-12 min mile pace which drives me nuts. I shook it off and started my half mile cool down walk home simply glad I got my run in and that it is over.
By now it is already dark except for the jagnormousness beautiful moon shining down. As I walked back in that moment I was reminded why I run. Here I was experiencing the post run euphoria or high out in a crisp cold night looking at a unbelievable moon illuminated sky. I find that these moments are common when I run and seemed to be missed when I don't. Maybe it a total coincidence but I don't think so.
Once I was home I showered and watched Glenn Beck that I had saved on my DVR. One of his topics was that General McChrystal had requested 60, 000 troops with a minimum of 40,000. Yet President Obama is sending 30,000. First of all how do you come up with this number? The General has extensive experience in what is needed to win the war and was handpicked by President Obama. Why wouldn't President Obama give him at least the 40,000 troop minimum requested? What did President Obama see that warranted 10,000 troops less? I don't get it, and believe it may be a mistake and he should send all the troop the General is asking for. Also there are some reports that some senior White House advisors don't believe that the Taliban is even a threat, Really. Are these people paying attention at all. Maybe we can just all hug and things will be much better. Everyone deserves a second chance.
Finally I was interested to see that Muntadhar al-Zeid had a shoe throw at him today. If you don't remember he was the person who threw his shoes at that time President George W Bush. Initially I thought it was extremely disrespectful and childish act although it was part of his culture. However tonight thinking about all the violence in this country and people shooting police officers as they sit in a restaurant and kids shooting classmates I wonder if things would be better if all just started throwing shoes. It sure is a lot less permanent afterwards, just a quick "Ouch, that really hurt" and thats it.
So in closing I leave with this thought to ponder, maybe shoes are the answer. It’s really all it takes to go out for a run, and if you have never had the chance to experience the world through the eyes of a runner you are really missing out. Sure it’s hard, tiring and takes time and training. However you will never be the same and words really cannot describe it. Each day and each run is different. I will say although its getting colder and colder now I am really looking forward to my first run while it is snowing. In addition to that if we took a page out of the Muntadhar al-Zeid's book and simply threw shoes instead of shooting each other we would all be better off. So you see shoes are the answer.
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