22 Feb 2009

Holy Sunday and i'm up and down to the beach there's a guy there with his two dogs on this cloudy windswept damp morning good for dogs cause they're always happy to be outdoors humans less so when the weather is not so agreeable. Set out to do the longer state park loop as I have named the run, about 7.5 miles in length. Headed down the back street Ken calls to me off his balcony out there drinking a cup of coffee say hello and continued on with no particular pressing thoughts early in the run just running. Later pass a guy with red sweatshirt he's on the greenway and i'm on Spencer Farlow Rd he catches my eye and waves and I wave back. Started thinking at some point after i ran under Snow's Cut Bridge along the bike path about a George Sheehan quote, Dr George Sheehan..."I run because i have to"... and i wonder if thats why that guy in the red was running cause for me it can be a thousand reasons at any one particular instance that culminate, or better yet synthesize into the thought/ statement "I run because i have to." He's there I'm here I run he runs it starts to rain lightly the drumbeat of life bangs and beats on in every corner of the globe. But then i'm back in the woods along the ATl waterway thoughts of writing...Jack Kerouac the Beats let it blow man like the jazz greats Charlie Parker spontanoues words sounds that capture the feelings ecstacies highs lows and all that stuff that cant perhaps ever be captured in its purest essence in any art form and I run run run on thru the ancient woods. Darn near then run into a lady coming along a bend in the trail out walking her dog she smiles at me as i do we say hello and continue on our own ways following our own Gods course maybe she's an atheist i confess though i didn't think that at the time. But i do wish i could record the thoughts that i do get more precisely as they occur when i'm running. Emerson or Thoreau once said they never trusted 'sedentary thoughts'.

And then later on the Nature Trail as its named in the state park lo and behold here comes the guy in the red sweatshirt and we pass each other on the trail exchange pleasantries some two, three miles after out first encounter out in the more civilized part of the island.

Got an occasional sharper pain once in my foot and once in my lower back the body's way of saying be careful dont over do it, two weeks a go or so i was more concerned about my right foot and thought i may have a stress fracture. So what do I do? After one day off/ rest i ran real hard the next week (on top of having to do some tougher work during the days that required me to stand alot) just sort of to see what if anything would happen...either the body will break or find ways to get stronger. One of the days while in the woods i imagined a healthy body or the silhoutte form of a body yellow in color (not sure why yellow) moving relatively pain free and unencumbered as if it was outside of myself, yet simulataneously inside of me. Hard to explain, and i did this while repeating a mantra something of the sort "i want to be healthy i want to be healthy and be able to run free." Injuries/ pain is a by-product of the sport and unfortunately inevitable from time to time. I had my freind Neva check it out then at the end of the week... she's a retired nurse with a masters from John's Hopkins so i assume she knows her stuff, plus i trust her judgement...she told me it was doubtful i had bone/ stress damage, and that it was likley an arch issue that i should have checked out by orthopedic surgeons, and she also told me a place to go on Shipyard Blvd. Though i can be a stubborn SOB and only want to go to a doctor if i'm about to die or something is about to fall off.

Got done with the run on the boardwalk felt good that last stretch past the small hilly dunes and scrub vegetation, little palmetto trees and plants...down the ramp and onto the beach went for a short walk after i untied my shoes took my socks off and slipped my shoes back on over my bare feet. Cant wait for warmer weather and wading into the ocean after getting done with runs. Such a high taking the shoes off after a real good sweat filled effort and wading out into the sea feeling the waves soothe the tired body.