It wasn’t about the run

It wasn’t about the run (last night)…it was about the experience.

Truth. 

After the best laid plans ran afoul (yep, I just used “afoul” on my blog, what of it?) last night – late departure from work, traffic in random unexpected spots on my commute home, moodiness in general from too much sitting on my ass butt all day at work – and I needed last night’s run.

But I didn’t need it for the workout, I needed it for the experience. 

You see, I started to talk myself out of my workout the longer into my commute I got. I was getting more and more annoyed, frustrated, downright grumpy pants, like whoa. But the closer I got to home, the more and more I knew I needed to run it out.

…to feel the cool air breezing through my hair.
…to pound the pavement next to Scott while catching up on our days; uninterrupted. 
…without caring that it was already pitch black by 6:30. Letting the moonlight be our guide instead.
…setting out with no real distance in mind.

We were just running to run. An experience. And that’s all.

And wow, did we ever run. We ended up covering our go-to 5k route; one that a couple of years ago I thought was such a difficult loop to complete. There are two sizeable hills on this particular route and I used to dread them.

Not last night. 

I powered through that 5k,  hills and all, like a freakin’ fiend. I didn’t care how many miles we ran. I just wanted to move. My legs were humming along; my pace quick and peppy; and quickening as my mood lifted. It was absolutely unreal how closely connected my pace was to my mood shifting.

Endorphins were flying high by the time we hit the last half mile. It was then that my mind totally let go and my body took over. Almost as if out of my control entirely.

It was then that I experienced it. The elusive mind-body connection; where my mind was finally free to let my body do the work. Something I have never ever experienced before. Not fully, anyway.

Last night was the first time that I trusted my body to do what my mind thought was not possible: To just move.  Freely and unthinking. Experiencing the run, letting the work happen… just moving, not thinking.

It wasn’t about the run, it was about the experience…