Inside my head

April 22, 2015

Today I saved my run until lunch time. A little by choice,a little by accident.  My little 4 year old was up all night with a wicked cough and fever, so I spent my usual morning running time taking him to the Dr’s office to make sure it wasn’t anything too serious.  (good news, he’ll live!) My first thought was that I would skip today, but then decided mid morning that maybe I could try running while my husband is home for lunch and let him take over the kindergarten carpool for the day.

As I as leaving I went to turn on my play list and remembered that my phone’s volume wouldn’t work.  Dang!  Last week I dropped my phone and ever since the volume seems all messed up. Sidenote: my phone is SO old.  It has so many problems. (My husband’s is older than mine.)  I know what you are going to say, just get new ones. But every time we talk to someone at the phone store we get a different story and the result always is if we want new ones our bill will go up $30-$50..  I know that isn’t much.  But I am too cheap…I mean frugal…I mean thrifty to make the commitment.  We pay under $100 for both iphones with a data we never run out of and you can’t beat that.  

Anyway… The ringer seems to work, the alarm works (both great things) but the music doesn’t work.  (not a great thing when you want to run).  I just decided to bag it. 
Who needs music anyway?
It wouldn’t be that bad.
Except for me I really LOVE to talk to people.  I really LOVE to listen to something while running, or watch something.  I need some form of distraction.  Running is an escape for me.  A time not to think.
But today I did it.
I ran 5.3 miles without music and without talking to anyone.  Inside my own head.


Here are some of random thoughts from my run today:
-It’s hot.  Hotter than even a treadmill would have been this morning.  But the sun feels nice. Maybe my glow-in-the-dark-self will get a bit of a tan.

-Dogs.  I only passed one that was out today.  And after a freak out in my head I found out  he was 
an old, nice dog. I looped around and came by this house again at the end of my run.  Saw the same dog again.  He barked and still scared me even though I knew he was all bark.  I’m not a dog person.

-Geez! About a half a mile in I realized that I am wearing make up.  I wasn’t planning on this run and forgot to take it off.  Now I am like that crazy lady at the half marathon last weekend.

-Houses, houses everywhere.  This really should be a whole separate post, but no one would want to read the drama from inside my head.  I really want my own house.  Or I want to run in field in the middle of no where so I don’t see houses I want.  Ok….This takes up probably 50-70% of my thoughts on almost ALL my runs.  Even if I am watching a show. Sometimes even if I am running with friends.  This is sad, but true. I know it is a blessing we can live with family right now as we build our practice.  I love our school and our ward at church. And I know I probably complain about this too much. But I’m keeping it real.  
This drives me to run and run and run.
and eat a lot of brownies.

-About mile 2 my husband and the kids drove by and cheered for me.  Then they all yelled “let’s race mom” and sped off.  Nice.

-Why don’t cars move over for you?  Especially when you are on a road without a sidewalk and  aren’t any other cars coming?

-So you are supposed to run against traffic. But if the sidewalk is on the side with traffic, I run on that.  But what if the sidewalk ends for a couple blocks and then starts up again? I feel like I am always crossing this way and that.

I ended the run with 5.3 miles with a 9:47 average pace and got home just in time for my husband to make it back to work.  I am not complaining about the splits today either.  I felt slower than when I run with music, but I ended up being faster. Maybe being inside my head for a while wasn’t too bad.  I was a little apprehensive when I started out without anything, it felt a little strange.  But in the end I think it was worth it.
Maybe a good, therapeutic thing to do from time to time.
Maybe I shouldn’t be so scared to run without anything.

So I want to know…
Do you listen to music when you run? 
Do you run in silence?
Do you think I’m completely nuts for running in make up?
Who wants to share a pan of brownies with me?

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