you can throw me like a boomerang

I swear, I will disable the player next time I log in so that it doesn't do that annoying auto-start thing every time you visit me, but please bear with me just for one entry, because the most amazing thing just happened. I went running, and I enjoyed myself.

Had scheduled a swim today - I was supposed to push for a faster 300 or a moderate 400; hiking was out of the question because I worked from 8 to 3. For some reason I thought afternoon lap swim went till 5.30 but the pool actually closes for classes at 5. I was incredibly annoyed with myself because I was supposed to have gotten there by 4, but had dilly-dallied at work and then took the dog for a leisurely stroll instead of going straight to the pool. Because I *thought* I'd had a 30 minute padding.

Anyway, I drove home and tried to figure out what I should do instead. I could go for a long walk around Makiki or Manoa, or hop on the treadmill for a walk at my mom and dad's, or put on my favorite CD and do some jump rope in the living room (which always makes me feel a little bit stupid, but it's great exercise.) OR. I could stare down my fear and loathing of the Big R, and just take myself on a run.

So I did.

It was short, and at some points no faster than a spirited shuffle, but the cool thing was running through the park, past little league practices and team cookouts, and alongside other runners, and realizing that I should have been tired by a long time ago, but wasn't. I ran without slowing through the first two songs on the playlist - a total of 7 minutes and 21 seconds - The A-Teens' take on "Voulez-Vous," and that insipid Ashlee Simpson "Lala" song that seems to be on all runners' playlists (and really, now I see why). There's a part where the music sort of dies in anticipation of the climax (I don't know music terms), and I thought it was the end of the song, and I was all set to give myself a walky break, when she screamed, "YOU MAKE ME WANNA LA LA!" ... would the song ever end? At that point my lungs started to burn. At that point I was not too sure of my footing - literally and figuratively speaking. But in the end, I made it through 24 minutes of music, roughly replicated in the player below, before finding myself back at home, just as it got dark, just as my legs started to protest.

Not feeling like dying during and after was a new experience for me. Feeling happy was definitely foreign. I've successfully hurdled a small - but muy significant - obstacle in my path to the wralkathon.

Awesome! (P.S. I added "Suddenly I See," which I did not run to, because it's one of my favorite songs, it totally describes my mood after tonight's run, and The Devil Wears Prada was on TV as I was blogging.)