Running Grateful

One or two mornings a week, I am out the door at 5am to get in an easy 10km run in the name of mileage and the Boston Marathon. Aside from Wednesday run practice with the Halifast crew, my road to Boston is paved at 5am and 7pm.

Today I decided that I would pay attention to enjoying this time on the road by myself.  There are many reasons to be negative about a 5am run. It’s 5am. The street is not your bed. It  is dark. Today it was -8 with a windchill of -14.  But with intention, this run was particularly joyful. Snow had been falling lightly all night. For long stretches of the city, my footprints were the first in the snow. I love this. Point Pleasant Park looked quiet and fresh.  My body felt strong. I enjoyed being alone and no one needing me (mother + worker in a helping profession). I was warm enough. I never check the temperature before leaving the house. With good winter gear on, knowledge of the number isn’t important.

A dear friend recently suffered a loss and has been talking to me about running and gratitude. The solitude and gratitude for the opportunity to place those first footprints in the snow got me thinking about other things that I am grateful for in respect to running.

This was a timely conversation with my runner self as I had been having a similar conversation with my mothering self the night before. Following 9 days of illness in a household with a toddler and a preschooler, parenting was beginning to feel like so. much. work. Last night, I made a choice to be more mindful to look for the joy amidst the work.

When I’m looking for joy, I often think of Rose Cousins‘ song lyrics from an album of lullabies by local artists:

Hands and fingers, knees and toes
We cannot hold how fast time goes
You only get this one chance to grow
So take it slow
Take it slow

Take it slow.

You only get this one chance.

The snowflakes and the footprints on my run were taking it slow.

This sweet moment at breakfast this morning, in the middle of the crying, the mess, the child climbing onto the table and the chaos of feeding, dressing, grooming and snowsuiting x 2 (or x 3 if you count dad who was leaving on business trip).  This moment was taking it slow.

Here’s the rest of my “taking it slow” list of running things that I decided I am grateful for this morning:

1. Training with my sister(s). My sister and I are both going to Boston Marathon. I love training with her with Halifast and doing our long runs together. Sometimes we manage our Saturday workout together too. On a really wonderful Sunday, our other sister can join us as well and we make a sister-training-trio.
2. Another Boston Marathon. Living to die another day. Our fictional running hero Quenton Cassidy writes: He ran not for crypto-religious reasons, but to win races, to cover ground fast. Not only to be better than his fellows, but better than himself. To be faster by a tenth of a second, by an inch, by two feet or two yards than he had been the week or year before. Read more here. I’m grateful for the chance to be better than myself. Last running season, I learned to define success in ways other than numbers. We are early into this season. No competition yet means no failure yet. A blank slate. A fresh chance to achieve success in numbers.
3. Coaching. In the fall, a long time friend asked me to coach her and a group of half marathon runners, mostly in an online capacity. Watching this group of hardworking women dedicate themselves to training and bask in the satisfaction of nailing the training has been regularly replenishing my enjoyment of our sport.

4. 

   Winning core work. After trying to commit to core work for… years, I’ve finally found a way to work it into my routine: as a team based activity at home. It goes like this:

   

5. Walking to work. In December, I shook up my work life and transferred high schools in the name of better family life. Instead of driving over the bridge to Dartmouth each day and sitting in traffic, my kids and I are now walking to day care and then I walk to work. I’m adding a gentle, stretching 5km (round-trip) walk to my legs’ day. Right now, I’m achieving enough weekly mileage for training with my workouts and long run. Later on, when I’m trying to push beyond 90km/week, I will be able to easily add a 5km run at the end of the day before picking my kids up in the same time that it takes to walk home.

That’s all for me today. If you’ve been thinking of the same thing, let me know what’s on your list.

Run on, fine friends.