Moment of Clarity

As you know, part of our training requires one long run per week. We usually do these on the weekends. Laura is doing her 7-miler tomorrow (which will be a new distance record for her if I’m not mistaken) and I will do my 9-miler on Sunday. The big mental hurdle for me is trying to come up with new routes that will take me as far as I want to go. What I tend to think of as REALLY REALLY far, once I map it, usually isn’t. Here is an example: “From work to Slovenia” sounds really far doesn’t it? In the car it feels far, too. But I can run it in about ten minutes. That’s the problem with Europe. Everything is close and makes you feel like you’re running REALLY REALLY far, but you’re not. A runner’s life in say, Wisconsin, is different. There you can say “My house to grandma’s house,” and you’ve got not only an automatic 9-miler in the bag, but probably some cookies, too! Okay okay, there is a downside to running in Wisconsin, however-- people who don’t shovel their sidewalks. On my mom’s block there are two houses with consistently icy front walks. Here I don’t have to worry about that.

In fact, I had a moment of clarity yesterday morning when I rolled out of bed and threw my running tights on to the sound of rain chiming (I’m not being poetic, it actually sounds like bells!) on the windows (baseball hat- check, jacket- check, leash- check, dog-check, plastic poop bag- check, keys-check).

Call the Dalai Llama, people, this might be Dharma! Here is my actual thought from yesterday morning: “Here it is rain, but somewhere else it is snow, and I don’t have to shovel it.” And I ran, happy. Let’s start the countdown: Twelve days until I’m running in Wisconsin again. Sunday, Trieste to Slovenia or bust.