Long day at work yesterday. Late night. 5 AM came early, early, and I really thought about texting Christian to tell him that there was absolutely no way that I was getting out of the warm bed to go jog. Because I know that Chris would have read the message, happily rolled over, and not mentioned it at all.
Then, I thought of you, RBF, and the sullen post I’d have to make.
So I dragged out of bed, started the coffee pot, threw on clothes and shoes, brushed my teeth, grabbed a mugga’ joe, and headed to Christian’s. He seemed somewhat drowsy, so I’m guessing he’d figured I’d be bailing. But, we headed out.
About halfway to Chris’s house, I realized I’d left my ForeRunner at the house. Crap. Since I’d been using it, I’ve stopped wearing a watch – the ForeRunner captures my running times, my cell has a clock, my car has a clock, my computer has a clock – you get the picture. It’s been a while since I’ve been running in Newport, so I’ve forgotten the measurements on most of my routes.
(An aside: Another thing to love about the ForeRunner is that it completely frees me from having to have a “route”. It counts mileage, so I can make up routes on the fly. See a good hill? Head up it. Never been around that corner? Go. Feeling a little draggy? Take the low road. It’s a training tool for short attention spans.)
But I had my iPod. iPod, have I told you I love you? Fired up Wilco’s ‘A Ghost is Born’, which if you haven’t listened to, you are missing the final step in the evolution of the garage band. It explains most of the current crop of bad knockoff garage bands. Skipped the first track, and kicked it to “When the devil showed up, he did not wear red, he had chrome on his head”. Checked the clock – 6:29, did the math – turn around at 6:44, finish at 6:59, and that’d be 30 minutes, which at a conservative 10 minute mile meant I’d do 3 miles, on plan for the year.
The first half of the run was absolutely perfect; probably the first time since I’ve re-dedicated myself that it has been. Even the hill up Memorial from the feet felt good; it wasn’t until I started heading back that there was even a hint of tired.