Taking the first steps west is refreshing. Having started out cruising around the crown of Maine for a month going every direction but west on a cross country journey from east coast to west, now, finally headed in the right direction. This is nice.
I usually run after work. I like the division. Pushing hard at work, sometimes having a good day, sometimes not, but that run right after is just the ticket. You think better when you are running. It allows you to process the day, and, if your run is long enough, you stop thinking. By the time I get home, and ready to settle into the evening I am refreshed.
I find also that if I have to miss a run, or have not had the quality for which I am looking, things can get noisy in my mind. When I first started running it was toward the end of a significant weight loss. At the time I had lost roughly sixty pounds walking and using Weight Watchers. Not walking like strolling about, but walking to the point of becoming sweaty and winded. The next logical step was get out there. After that first run I knew something had changed. I came to realize that I had lived my entire life with an incredible amount of white noise in my head. Like standing next to a powerful fan and that first run, and all the subsequent ones, shut it off and keep it shut down.
Missing a few, for one reason or another, allows it start back up. Then I muster the gumption to head back out and I feel like an enormous weight is lifted. Life becomes clear again, and I have discarded the distorted perspective. I notice it with my wife, too. Having two children she has had two hiatuses (hiati?) She is just starting running for the third time. I can see the change in her mind. I think that is one of the reasons why runners gravitate toward each other.
The only why I know how to describe it is addiction. At first it is a habit; then it gets so you need it. As far as addictions go, I like this one.
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