Running saves me. I'm not the first person to say so and I won't be the last. There is something so healing in the mind-body connection that is made each time your foot hits the ground, propelling you forward head on into your future. Running clears the mind and cleanses the soul. It's therapy.
I have been known to run through injury, heart ache and all types of questionable weather. I don't cancel even when I should and I have little patience if I get cancelled on. So, the first couple of times I cancelled, my running partner let it slide. When it became a couple times or more a week, he confronted me.
"What is going on here?" He text me early one morning as I rolled over intending on going back to sleep. I ignored the bright light of my cell phone. It went off again. "Hey", he text. I groaned and rolled over and grabbed the cell phone. "Coming", I replied.
As we both got out of our cars that morning, the air crisp and biting, he looked me in the eye or I think he did, it was dark. "Are you sick?" He asked. A massive rush of emotion came over me and I broke down into tears. I had no idea what was happening to me. I was so sad and angry. My joints and back hurt. I felt completely undone.
We ran and I tried to explain how I felt but it made no sense. Not even to me. So in the end, we just ran. I listened to our feet hit the trail. I breathed in the cool air. I cleared my mind and focused on the run and by the time we rounded the final turn, I felt better.
As I drove home that morning, I thought about what I was going to do next. I was going to get out of this slump. But how? Sweat trickled down my face and streaked my salty cheeks. One foot in front of the other, just like running, that was how...
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