A Twist

I went out this AM with Child 2 in the stroller -- mid-week kid run, that's the twist. We were up around 6:10 but didn't get out the door until about 6:40. We went out for 40 minutes and it was fun. He was talking the whole way, it was a beautiful, brisk morning and we totally enjoyed it. I slowed down to a walk near the last hill to navigate around a car and psyche myself up to push him over it and he says to me "how come we're walking, Dadda?" I started running right away. It was classic. We saw a nasty dead opossum and he was sort of fascinated by its corpse -- all bloody and gross, and also by a tennis ball in the gutter. He was talking about the ball when we got home -- for some reason its presence in the gutter really grabbed his attention and his imagination. It seemed to me that he realized that there was some story behind how the ball got to the gutter.

Anyway, I took a new approach and adopted a new attitude. I went out because I like to run, and I like to run 30+ minutes. Whatever happens with training the rest of the way happens and whatever happens in Burlington also happens. I'm just going to run to run and enjoy the experience. I'm not competing with anybody but me, and even with myself I'm taking a more experiential approach. It is what it is, and running needs to fit with my life. Marathon training doesn't really, but I think it will someday. I know I just spoke of a sprint tri in one of my comments, but that could work for me -- nothing major, maybe like a 1/4 miles swim, 15 mile bike and 5K run -- totally doable and not overly brutal to train for. Experiential, that's my watchword this summer.