Let me confess: I pretty much intended to punt tonight. I snuggled down in the high thread count sheets early last night, with the AC below where it responsibly should have been, and didn’t plan on waking up to run prior to my meeting, even though the meeting was at a very gentlemanly hour.
And I’d pretty much accepted that I’d get in, get home, and go to bed.
But then, I got delayed leaving BWI (For those keeping score, the airlines batted a whopping 0.333 for on-time departures for me this week). The ride in to BDL was a riot – we were skirting a line of thunderstorms to our south that should have been in the midwest – a full 120 degrees of the sky was big anvils being lit by lightning, and we got a bit of a rollercoaster.
So, when I rolled into Mystic about 11 PM, went and kissed everyone while they slept, I said “Why not?”, and strapped on the sneakers.
Good decision. I did one of the loops that were critical in proving to myself I was actually a runner back when I picked this up again in 2004. Nothing epic – just a 4-ish mile loop around the neighborhood. The first three were great. I stopped the Nike+, and walked for about a half-mile (to avoid running up Cow Hill, which is wicked steep), and then ran the last mile to the house.
And, man, if the last mile didn’t feel better than the first three. I powered up the last little bit of the hill, and the classic strains of Bonnie Tyler broke in with our modern Iliad:
Where have all the good men gone
And where are all the gods?
Where’s the street-wise Hercules
To fight the rising odds?
Isn’t there a white knight upon a fiery steed?
Late at night I toss and I turn and I dream of what I need
(Hey, Bonnie – I’m right here. Though taken.)
And, yeah, I imagined myself as Kevin Bacon, strained to see if I could make a mullet pop out of the back of my skull, and I powered back to the house.
Strong.
Fast.
And fresh from the fight that is modern air travel.
Now – off to bed. The boys are due to wake me up by flinging themselves onto our bed in 7 hours.
(PS – what I want is for some male icon of modern alt-pop to cover “I Need a Hero” much like Lyle Lovette and the Blues Brothers covered Tammy Wynette’s classic “Stand By Your Man”. Not sure why, but I think it could be cool.)