Meditative running

I woke several times last night. I think I was hungry. Yesterday morning I ate a huge brunch at my new favorite place, the Delta (cheddar grits are tasty! And beignets with lemon cream!), then sat around and whined to myself about how rainy, hail-y, and cold it was outside. Basically I was trying to talk myself out of going for the long run I had planned on.

It almost worked, too. By 5 PM, I thought it was going to be dark soon. I had forgotten about Daylight Savings Time, though. Crap, I realized, it’s not going to get dark until after 7 PM! Plus, actual blue sky appeared and the rain stopped.

With a nudge from friends, I was dressed and out in the sun, and, as predicted, I warmed up soon enough.

I kept my pace manageable and even, and if I felt myself getting too out of breath, I slowed my pace but did not walk. And out of the 5 full miles I ran, three of them were under 10 minutes each, which is pretty good since taking a break due to injury a few weeks back.

At one point, tiny bits of hail started hinting at possibly maybe falling on me. I thought it would get worse, and as I considered it, my feet still pounding the pavement, I realized that I was near the half-way point and a little hail would not stop me. But the full hailstorm never arrived, and in retrospect it might have simply been some residual hail being blown off the tree branches along that section of street.

I finished 5.4 miles in 0:55:37, for an average pace of 10:16 per mile.

My reward was an applewood smoked bacon and white cheddar burger (and fries!) from Mike’s Drive-In, while watching the Sunday night cartoons.

And dreams of not being able to sleep. Dreams of having difficulty waking. And waking up from those dreams and having trouble getting back to sleep.

I think I was still hungry…