Today, I woke up a little before 7:00AM to got for a three mile run. It was my usual route through my Brooklyn neighborhood. Instead of running along the outside of the park on Prospect Park West, I ran into the park on the loop and then out by Grand Army Plaza.

I’ve said it before but I’m still amazed that I now have the ability to run before work. I am not a morning person but it’s the repetition of the exercise. Having done it before quiets the voice in my head that says, “This is going to suuuuuuck.” It’s been replaced with, “You’ll feel good after you’re done, trust me.”

As I said in my post about running the marathon in 2019, I am signed up for most of my 9 + 1 races and hopefully I’ll be able to complete all of them and qualify next year. I also signed up for the Jazz Half in New Orleans today. That was the race I missed out on two years ago.

Of course now my left knee is feeling kind of wonky and I’m scared that I’ll be sidelined with an injury. Anxiety knows no rest, people.

I actually looked up Steve Prefontaine today in my procrastination web wanderings and I watched the trailer for the biopic about him and it contained platitudes about running and life and pushing your limits. I’ve already forgotten the lines of dialogue. But I suppose running has helped me. I feel like I’ve set a goal and accomplished it. It makes me feel like I can do that again.

And I’ll be honest, the writing here lately has been like squeezing blood from a stone but I’ve been thinking to myself, just like when you’re on a long run, just put one foot in front of the other. And so I’ve been putting one word after the other. I said I was going to do something and I’m going to finish it.

I just got cheesy but so it goes. Unfortunately, I’m a big believer in platitudes. They’re simple and it makes them easy to cling to.

Also, in honor of Global Running Day, I thought that I would post two pics from the Brooklyn Half Marathon. The first is around mile three or four, when I was feeling great. The second is from the end, when I had nothing left. Enjoy.

Hubris

Punishment