Mornings Are for Suckers (and people who like mornings)

Is this 2 or 3 of these runs together? I don’t know. Neither one of us could remember. I remember writing about at least one run together. Heck, I even remember what I wrote – but hell if I can find the post. Regardless – on this occasion we ran in the early evening like civilized adults with aging children. Not in the wee hours of the morning like a couple of zombies (like I used to do after chasing around under developed miniature versions of myself all night).

I swear – I’m not really judging my early morning running friends as much as I am excited to be able to run with someone later in the day. Seriously.

Most of our texting involves negotiating a time to run.

Hogan: “What time are you thinking?”
Me: “Early but not dumb. 8ish?”
Hogan: “I like Evening. 6:30pm?”

See how he just goes from 8am to 630 pm in one declarative move? He wastes no time in steering the conversation his way. Not that I am surprised by this move, nor do I object. But…

Me: “Dang – I’m spoken for from the afternoon on…”
Hogan: “I’m spoken for in the am… by my bed!!!”

After a couple months of back and forth (we are apparently very busy people) we finally found a time that worked. He was looking at a down-week in marathon training and I needed to run on a Friday night. Scheduling magic occurs and we found ourselves on the trail around 5:15 last Friday night.

The Run

We ran 13.1 miles on the B&A trail.

Can I just pause a sec for a shout out to the Anne Arundel department of Recreation and Parks? These folks maintain the trail and I cannot gush enough about what an amazing job they do at ensuring it remains a quality accessible resource for all who use it.

Is it a long ass stretch of incredibly boring asphalt trail? Yes – but it’s ours and I love and appreciate it.

I have easily run 15 to 20 of these runs on the trail. I really can’t be sure – I mean see the opening paragraph where I can’t find a very specific run that I almost 12% sure that it happened. But even if I’m in the ballpark this trail has been an invaluable resource for me in providing a safe place to run this past year and I appreciate it.

– end shout. Back to the run –

We started at at Jones Station near the 3.5 mile marker on the trail behind a Rite Aid and Park and Ride. The plan was to head South until we hit some trail maintenance and then come back to the start, do some math and then run North for (half) the remainder and then come back. But like most plans, this one didn’t last long as we realized that the repairs on the trail were already done. SO we kept on running to the trail head. Mile 0.

3.5 miles to the head. 3.5 miles back. 6.1 miles to go.

This easy math was particularly helpful for me since I FORGOT TO WEAR MY WATCH on this run! I don’t know how to explain this lapse but maybe let’s chalk it up to being close to done with these and I’m subconsciously trying to make it harder on myself. Self sabotage and all that.

Lucky for me, Hogan had me covered with his trusty phone/Strava combo. Also lucky for me he was coming off of his last long run before a marathon so he didn’t mind going a little slower than normal. You can see I started my now usual “walk the first minute of every mile” at mile 8.

Not the Run

When I write about running with people I try to stick to the ideas and sentiment in the abstract of our conversation as much as I can rather than get too specific. Conversation on the run can be a sacred place and I never want to share what wasn’t meant to be shared.

You: “Oh my goodness – what in the world did you guys talk about???”
Probably you: “Whatever dude – when is this post going to be over?”
Also if you are a runner: “Amen”
Me: “Whatever dude – when is this post going to be over?”
Me: “Seriously – where are you going with this? It’s like long and boring like the trail.”

Anyways – there was one idea from this run that stuck with me and that is how we as individuals can be different things to different people at different times. Obviously we change over time – but even in the short term we can simultaneously hold different points of view or display different behaviors depending on the context of the situation.

Something that Hogan added that I had never considered before is (and I’m paraphrasing with that “gifted” memory of mine) that in some cases it isn’t necessarily who we chose to be in that moment but it’s about who the world needs us to be in that moment. Even in that case we both agreed that what the world “needs” us to be is largely dependent on how we see the world (in that moment) and of course – no two people see the world in exactly the same way do they?

So I guess more accurately – it’s who we think the world needs us to be in that moment that guides us. And still there will be times when you will be absolutely sure that you are 100% right about a solution to a problem – but literally NO ONE else around you will see it your way. What do you do?

There may have been a mile or so of lamenting the apparent fact that some people wander around without any awareness of who they are or who they’re showing up as.

Maybe they’re just waking up too early.

Next Week: The Annapolis Striders Metric Marathon