Toeing the line
In the words of ultrarunning legend Hal Koerner, "Some will boil it down to chemicals, emotions, reasons why we crave it, but honestly, it's just a combination of all those things brought together in that moment, it's a beautiful, joyous thing." My god, that's beautiful. I find running, even more so racing, metaphorically aligned well with our day to day. We have those days, you wake up feeling refreshed, heart rate super low, you tackle the day before it has a thought to tackle you. Then, we have the opposite. Days where you seemingly can't get ahead, foggy and lethargic, just struggle busing on through. Ya know, those races, where everything possible aligned for you to have one of those magical runs, relatively speaking, you feel like Superman. Paced appropriately, breathing and stride in sync, finishing strong. Then, the races where almost immediately, your thoughts turn to, "oh for the love of god, just get me to the finish line."