Oh little bloggy blog, you've been neglected lately. My life pretty much revolves around three things at the moment: school, work, running. Not exactly something to write home about... You know more than I already have here and here. Oh yea and here too.
This is not to say that I am completely embracing hermitage values but when I am being social I want to focus just on that and not how I am going to write it up per se. Actually, in the short life of this blog the 'how' of it has never been a focus. We just really like to write. So life gets a bit messy and other things come in to focus and that's fine and dandy but I enjoy this space so I need to figure out a way to squeeze it in to the rotation.
For the past couple of weeks I have been running on what is affectionately called the dreadmill. It is/was a necessary evil that enabled me to study for my exams while crossing off my marathon training to do list. My last exam was Monday so when on Tuesday the sun decided to make its appearance after a very cold, drizzling, and foggy start, I made my way out to a trail near work. I generally avoid in and outs but being outside with the sights and smells and the dirt once again under my feet put a silly grin on my face. Well when I wasn't trying to convince myself that 80 degrees and high humidity will not actually kill me. The intensity of it really surprised me, especially since I ran about twice the distance just a few days prior.
Towards the end, I started playing the just-make-it-to-that-tree game. Right when I was about to stop at my designated foliage, there was a small boy standing by himself while his mother called for him from down the path to a get a moving. So I did what anyone would do and challenged him to a race. Little man ran fast and I had a burst of energy to help me make it the rest of the way back.
Sometimes I just need those little things to motivate me along. Just a short break, a friendly face, a kind word. They just brighten me up and let me feel all the warm, squishy good things in life. Next week's goal: be that for someone else. It's easy to get lost in the day-to-day grind and focus in on oneself but it is so much better when I take advantage of the opportunities around me to engage with others. Especially footraces with 4 year-olds acting their age.
notes:
- i realize that this post has absolutely nothing to do with actually running along the old croton aqueduct. thoughts + feelings > logistics. sometimes.
- if you would like to challenge your own 4 year old friend to a foot race, check out how to access the trail here. i entered near the a&p in hastings (street parking) and just ran out 20 minutes and then turned around. fyi, there are many street crossings in this section and cars don't yield for pedestrians. including when you are in crosswalks.
- there is only one picture from this trail because i was running and may have been entirely focused n heat + thirst so you get a bonus picture of the sunset from my post-run walk once i made it back to brooklyn. the city can just be so stunningly beautiful. and i will never tire of the sun.
- related to above, this was on loop in my brain during said run: birthdays were the worst days, now we sip champagne when we're thirsty. dehydration motivation fo sho.