Mental Preparation

Today I didn't exercise. I worked instead - a grueling 12-hour day of teaching. So, I told myself that I didn't have time to run and I didn't. Plus, yesterday I ran further and harder than I have in months. My body probably needed the break for a day.

But, I thought about exercise and then remembered a dream I once had.

I once dreamt about running. That was it. The whole dream.

The only thing is that at the time I was not a runner. I didn't even want to be a runner. I HATED running. At the time, the closest I got to running was when I was rushing to classes. Nothing could have possessed me to run. Nothing.

In the dream I ran through the familiar streets down by my old junior high school. What stood out most of all, though, was that I kept running and running and running and running and running. In the dream, I didn't stop because I didn't need to stop. My running was second nature, like breathing, and full of joy!

Several times since then I have wondered what that feels like, to run without needing to stop and walk. Running like that, filled with the exhuberance of one's body, always makes me think of animals. They run for the pure joy of it. They run because they love the feel of their bodies moving, and the world rushing past them. They run for fun. When I see them running full out like that, I wonder what that feels like to have the wind rushing through hair and a body moving like the perfectly built machine I know it can be.

It makes me hungry to run when I think about it because now

I AM A RUNNER

and it's a liberating thing to be.