I was late getting to Andrea's house for a run after work. This last week of work seems just as pressured as all the previous weeks. There's just so much to do, and this time, the feeling of so little time is truth.
But, back on track to the story, while I arrived a bit late, Andrea wasn't ready to go either. We sat and talked for a while. By 7 p.m. we were ready to go and off we went. During our prep-talks about the run, Andrea lobbied for a five mile run, while I wished aloud for something closer to three. We left her place, with my mind creating plenty of resistance to the idea of any enjoyment I might derive from the run. Meanwhile, Andrea pointed out the merits of a five mile run because "you have to run at least 1 or 2 to get over the hard stuff, then you might as well make it worth it by running 5."
Invariably, she lets me pick the route (I love picking the route on runs). And, invariably, I always aim higher than my own ambitions at the outset. The turning point in the run didn't come as I burst through "walls" at mile one or two, though it did come when I took a big fall - tripping over a speed bump in the darkness on Zillicoa St.
That fall broke my resistance that had been building with Andrea's exultation of our enjoyment and her cooing over the passing trees. I fell into a a fairly graceful tumble, with hands and right thigh/butt taking the brunt of the skidding and impact. The quiet fall bruised my bum, tore my glove, and tarnished my ego (but only slightly - since it was injury free and it was graceful). It also opened up new ease for the run.
The tightness of my Achilles heels I had complained of earlier faded from my memory and attention. Legs feeling lighter and with a slight awareness toward the tender tingling of my bum, I picked my feet up higher and continued on with the run. Besides wishing I had Arnica at home to help the bruising, I didn't think a thing more about that fall.
Andrea seemed more keenly aware to pick up her own feet, too, and often extended her arm (as you would when breaking hard in the car to protect the passenger from bolting forward into the dash) as we approached dips and rises along the future terrain of our course.
The miles passed by quickly. We most certainly ran more than five miles; I didn't really want it to end, though I began to feel the fatigue in my legs. At one last juncture on our route where we could have turned right and started the last bit of our run, I chose one last time to push on down the straight-away and give it a little more legnth.
Fall and all, I wish more runs were like this one.
