I wondered if my readers could bear yet another post on running. Then I thought, nobody HAS to read it. But some people might LIKE to read it. Anyways, it keeps me going.
Friday at work I rashly said, “I’m going to run up the hill to H Triple-C on Sunday.” I figured saying it would make it happen, and it turns out I was right. I started out early, before the warmer weather that is expected later. The sidewalks were bare and the sun was shining. What wasn’t to like?
As I ran toward the road to Herkimer County Community College (HCCC), I wondered if I would regret my rash words. I pictured people at work asking me did I run up that hill. I would answer, “Not very fast.” Then I reflected on my own ego: I not only think people listen when I talk, I think they remember what I say. Well, just in case somebody did, I started up the hill.
“You have all day to get up that hill,” I told myself (I often talk to myself in the second person). “Just look at your feet and shuffle on up.” That is a trick I learned in the army: you don’t feel so overwhelmed if you don’t keep looking up, up, up. I peeked a few times anyways.
What a long hill. I saw a cigarette butt in the road and thought that my run would be much more difficult if I smoked. So I had that going for me. In the army I knew several excellent runners who smoked. I’d even heard of one fellow who stopped in the middle of a PT test to smoke a cigarette and still made his time. That kind of wise-assness is rampant among the lower enlisted. I suppose in the upper ranks, too, but I didn’t hang out with them much.
I started to have a little trouble breathing. I tried to take deep breaths and hoped I didn’t sound like I was doing Lamaze. Then again, I don’t think anybody was listening.
At last I made it to the top! If only somebody was around to sing the chorus of “We Are the Champions” while I walked around with my fists in the air! Well, I wasn’t ready to walk yet anyways. Still, I could run with my fists in the air. Nobody was looking, and if they were they would just think I was stretching to get rid of a stitch. They wouldn’t know I didn’t have a stitch. I put my fists in the air. Oh, that made it easier to breathe. I had forgotten that trick.
My legs were feeling pretty smug. “You were so worried,” they said. “We could do this all day!” A short while later they indicted that although they could keep going all day, they were by no means inclined to.
I ran down by the back way, a gentler slope. Ahhh, when gravity is my friend. I turned left where a sign said “No Left Turn,” just to be that way. I ran through a residential area where last summer I ran by people sitting on their front porches. Ah, porch sitting. That weather will get here!
I was as usual glad I had run. I even enjoyed the run itself. When those warmer temperatures arrive, I bet I can get my dog to go for a nice walk with me. That might be good for Monday’s post. Stay tuned.
Mohawk Valley Girl 