Out of My Hood

By "Father Time"

It's 6:00. I've pulled on my tights and my thermax shirt. As I'm heading out the door, I pull on my reflective vest. I reflect.

Daylight savings headed into the sunset weeks ago. The night has pulled its fleece lined blanket over us. Barely evening. The sunlight, so much a part of after work runs till just recently, has gone off to join the money lost on the stock market today. It leaves nothing. Darkness is the absence of anything else. The lows outnumber the highs.

I plod. The first steps of any run are slow. Like an airliner on the runway. The pilot has to check the systems. Knees..check... Ankles...on we go for a block or two, reacquainting ourselves with ourselves, as we do at the beginning of every run, but this time there is no audience. No kids playing. No dogs barking. Not a creature stirring.

A chill...training for things to come. It's not even Thanksgiving yet and here we go again. Is this good? Is it bad? Half empty...half full...what does it matter what you think? It's gonna happen anyway.

Between you and me, I love it. Daylight savings is fine with me, but they turn it off just in time. I like the cool crisp darkness. I like the downright cold Winter too. Sure there are things I don't like. I dont like slush. I don't even think I'd miss it if it never happened. I dont like icy uneven surfaces. But, looking at it through the doors of perception, at the bottom line, it's your choice. The only thing you can change is negative perception.

Junque miles? I spose the day after a really hard workout at the track is a bit of a chore, but if you really didn't love running, you wouldn't do it would ya? But you do love running. Haven't you chafed waiting to be able to return from an injury? Don't you plan you day around how and when you're going to get out for your run today? Wake up between dreams and wonder if you shouldn't just slip out for 5 at 3:12 a.m. Who'd notice? If anyone did, who'd care? She sleeps like a member of the petrified forrest anyway. Stories of runners coming in after a run, only to be shot by their husbands/wives with the handy loaded pistol kept in the night table refresh your resolve never to own one of those things.

Ah, but the urge passes. You'd probably be too tired to get anything good in after work anyway. Just get up and pee then go back to sleep. Have a good day...They're all good days...get a nice run in after work, and to borrow a phrase from Little Richard:
Come back tomorrow night and try it again.