Running is Beautiful!

The lengthy debate revolving the shoes Kipchoge ran in last weekend set me back. There were calls to ban the Vapor Fly Next %, to strip the medals off the podium finishers in the 2016 Olympic marathon who wore prototype Vapor Flys and then there was Ryan Hall the gifted America runner who weighed in on the subject. The shoes Kipchoge wore to break 2 hours in a marathon were “What If” shoes. The entire event was staged to see if a runner good actually break a barrier. There were no rules except one. He had to cover 26.2 miles or 42 Kilometers. 2 years ago he came close. This year he did it. That’s the only story we need to know. A human being can run under 2 hours for the marathon. There is no point of staging another event like this. It’s done and we can move on. Now we sit and watch as the actual world record starts to creep down towards that barrier. It will do that and it will be rather quick.

Running Is Beautiful 
Kipchoge said he thought running could help make the world beautiful. I want to just turn it around and say running is beautiful. I have two stories from the weekend.

Saturday - I really didn’t want to run. I was tired, my knee hurt and mentally I simply was not prepared to run. I went to one of my usual parking spots for running and decided to just give it a try. The first 20 minutes sucked. Nothing felt good and I was simply bored. Just then I crested a hill and there was the sunrise. It hit me, and woke me up. The run started to feel effortless. By 30 minutes I was floating over the trail. The trails were quite, the birds were singing and the sun felt warm. That run took me 90 minutes to complete. I could have easily added on to the run, it felt that good. Running just the process of getting out the door can change a dark mood into a bright mood. It can turn a dark day into a bright day. It’s a beautifully thing.

Sunday - It was time for my wife to run. Her last long run (2 hours) before her 50K next weekend. My wife hates snakes. It’s a true phobia. She won’t touch dirt if she doesn’t have to. Two weekends ago on her Saturday run she tripped on some cable that had been left in the street by some construction workers. Down she went landing on her right knee. Local Life Guards cleaned he wound and drove her home. She was crushed. All week she was on the stair climber and bike just trying to maintain some fitness. She felt ok to run on a treadmill on Friday and Saturday but she was determined to get outside for 2 hours on Sunday. She thought running on trails would be good but there’s that snake thing. I told her I would lead her though the trails on my mountain bike. She did the run and came home very excited. She could feel her knee but it didn’t hurt. She’s now confident again that she’ll finish her 50K. Running is beautiful!

It’s a good life.......