The Best Part of My Day

Once again, running came through for me. I get so twisted up, office politics get under my skin and my mind creates extreme scenarios that unsettle me within key relationsips. And yes, my worries spiral about my running, too–will this fall that brusised my knee bench me in London? Will Betty rise up with fangs and claws to thwart my marathon goal yet again? But nothing is as comforting as a substantial distance covered at pace.  I am not running away; I am running towards. Towards peace, towards understanding, towards greater knowledge of self.

Last week, I was pretty lively. This is unlike me, usually I can never get enough sleep and I tend to drag. Perhaps it is my body already tapering down, realizing I am cutting her mileage so she’s full of energy to burn. After taking Thursday off to give the knee a day to sort that bruise out, I couldn’t wait to hit the road for a 10-miler to work. This of course is a run to work with a 6.5 mile detour (door-to-door is just 3.5 miles). I covered 10 miles, which included a crossing of the 59th Street Bridge, a loop of the upper 5 miles of Central Park, and a pedestrian-free trot down Fifth Avenue, and felt so fucking cool. Everyone else in the city is sleeping and here I am burning up 10 miles of pavement. I can set out on any given day and run 10 miles–my body and my mind are prepared and trained to do that, and to do it well. Seriously–that is way cool. 10 miles in 1:33:55. Average pace 9:23; fastest mile 8:44; slowest mile 10:27.

This morning, I ran to meet EN by the main New York City Library next to Bryant Park, as he would join me for the middle of my 13+-miler. I was a little late in arriving to EN because I was about half a mile from  home when I decided to turn back and get my gloves. I was in shorts and a tee-shirt and the wind was strong and chilly. Running through Midtown Manhattan before 8 AM on a Saturday is a pleasure. The tourists who are out and about are the really dumb ones (nothing’s open) and it’s easy to just shove by as they stop in the middle of the sidewalk, stunned to see a runner charging towards them. The rest of the auto and pedestrian traffic is light, so you don’t feel like a salmon fighting your way upstream when running across town. And running with EN is always great, he’s become a dear friend over the years. EN is in the middle of training for a triathlon, so he regaled me with tales of swimming three times a week and what it feels like to run immediately after you’ve been biking for an hour or so. I shudder, it all sounds so horrible to me. EN knows how much I would hate giving up even a minute of running to something else, so I think he tells me about his tri training to be amused by my reactions. But I admire him for taking on the challenge. I am also jealous of him: he leaves for Italy next week for a week-long vacation. The actually running part was harder than I expected it to be, and I was ready to stop around 10 miles in. (This could have been because I drank an entire bottle of red wine last night, what do you all think?) It was also a treat to have EN with me as I ran back home over my Queensboro Bridge; he would take the 7 train home as soon as we popped into Queens.  He and I could have talked all day; the last marathon I ran, he was with me step by step until Mile 23, and so hugging him good-bye was a little poignant–I won’t see him again until I’m back from London. 13.56 miles ran in 2:06:09. Average pace 9:18; fastest mile 8:39; slowest mile 9:45.