nighttime runs...

I am becoming a runner.

I have come to love night runs. Maybe love is not the right word...perhaps crave or need would be better suited. I have been wanting to "exercise more" for a while. As in YEARS. I finally decided to do it. I knew I needed routine to make it happen, so I decided to just buckle down and do it at night. At first it was miserable. Plodding along the freezing track, straining to make a mile without an asthma attack or stomach ache. Must. Keep. Going. After a couple of nights of this things got better. Once I actually started running regularly, it got easier. Funny how that works. Then it became a game of sorts. "Just add one more lap." After a couple of weeks of consistent running, I actually started to enjoy it. There is something so satisfying about working and working and eventually being able to do what used to be impossible, without hardly any pain or effort. Tonight I ran 3 1/2 miles nonstop.

The thing is, running has changed for me. How I do it, what I think about it...everything. Of course I love what running does for my body, but even more so, I love what it does for my mind. For my soul. Running is my think time. My alone time. My pray time. My process time. I put in my earbuds, turn on some Phil Wickham or Bethany Dillon, and go. I don't always listen to the music...the music is more just background noise for my thoughts, and a distraction from my breathing. When I am running, I am forced to be alone with my own thoughts and prayers. Praying helps me distract myself from my physical pain as well. And the more I run, the more clarity I have with my thoughts. Tonight I didn't want to stop. I didn't want to leave my "zone," only to return to my pile of homework and tangled mess of emotions. No, I would much rather keep running and processing. So I did. Hence the 3 1/2 miles.

Another random thing about me and running is I have to run at night. Daytime runs are so. much. harder. I really don't know why. I think the nighttime brings with it a crispness, moonlit serenity that makes me look forward to it. I also used to HATE running on tracks. Hate it. Now I love it. I like the familiarity, the ability to measure my progress, and the serenity the track brings at night. There is nothing like it.

(Lisa, if you are reading this, I did not copy your running posts. I have just come to think a lot of the same thoughts. :) )