This morning, it took 1 hour and 40 minutes to get out of the house. I just couldn’t find my inspiration. I couldn’t get out of bed, and when I did, I just kept feeling like, “What’s the point?” I eventually locked myself in the bathroom with The Quotable Runner and read the first few sections of quotes. After a while, it seemed like an okay idea to go out and run. So fine. I grabbed a pair of socks, slipped on my sandals, and went down to the car.
Whoops. I thought I’d left my gym bag in the car, but nooooo. So, I had no running shoes, just the socks. I said to myself, “Then, I’ll run the beach.”
I got to the beach just after sunrise, but the sun was choking behind a heavy bank of clouds. When it finally poked out, it was red. Red sky in morning, sailors take warning. The air was muggy, and all the seagulls stayed in tight little knots, absently picking over empty clamshells. A family of five had bicycled out to the beach and were clustered like the gulls, picking over the dreary sky and sucking up vacation experience for their memories.
I kicked off my sandals and ran. Around 2 miles, I was all the way to the boardwalk where the video arcades dip into the ocean on fat posts and drunkards usually sleep off their finales in the sandy gaps closest to the street. I headed past, saying hello to all the white tee shirt and shorts older ladies with the bronze tans and no early morning kindness. I spoke with the fisherman with his two rods, his cup of amazing-smelling coffee, and all our weather words for no effect.
Far off in the distance, I could see the water tower of a New Hampshire town growing closer and bigger. I considered really going for it and running to the base of that tower, but this was just a fluff. I turned around at my best guess of 2.5.
Mind you, the water wasn’t exactly cooperating. The tide was coming in, rolling over what little hard packed sand I could find, so I found myself either scuttling at angles up into the softer stuff, or splashing like an overgrown retriever in the shin-deep surf. Good for the muscles, I like to say.
I finished my five miles without having ever walked. I’m not really sure why. It wasn’t some kind of conscious effort. And it certainly doesn’t rate as an achievement. That’s not how I train. But whatever the case, I ran the entire five miles.
And in the end, my power to motivate myself grew even stronger.
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