Sunset Running

It is almost 4 am, and I have been on the couch with the dogs for a few hours.  I have decided they have masterfully manipulated me over time.  For years, Rooney and Cayenne just slept through storms.  A while back, there was a really bad storm that had them both a little worked up, so I spent the night comforting them.  Cayenne started "acting scared" of storms after that.  Now, when a little storm comes our way, she cries at the bedroom door and paces the house until someone (me) comes and calms her.  Rooney decided he might as well join in on this too. 

So, if they are so scared of storms, why do their tails wag when I get out of bed for them? Why do they immediately jump on the couch and wait for me, snuggle up (and by that I mean sleep on top of me), and snore away?  I am telling you, I have been duped.  But now it is a routine, and there is no foreseeable way out of it.

Funny... Dave is sound asleep in the bed.  This must be a foreshadowing of things to come....

On Friday evening I did a short and easy jog plod.  I was watching the sunset and just moving along in the best way I could.  At some point it occurred to me that our years in life fit together like pieces of a puzzle if we look back and reflect on them.

I was running with zero knee pain.  It just hit me in the middle of the run that I was pain free in 2011 and 2012.  I started to see the pieces of the puzzle fit together before me.  2006-2008 I transitioned to triathlon to try to rehab for soccer.  I never did rehab for soccer, and I ran with pain daily, but I came to love triathlon.  2009 I could not take the pain anymore, and after 5 years of struggling with my knee injury and a gazillion consults with the doctors, I finally had knee surgery.  2010 was my year of rehabbing my knee and the beginning of running as I know it know.  It all fit.  The years all had a purpose. 

Which brought me back to 2011-2012.  The first years of pain-free running I had felt in many, many seasons of athletics. 

And 2013 on a beautiful sunset evening?  More pain-free running. 

I saw how the years overlapped, developed, and evolved.  Little and big set backs are really keys to opening other doors.

It hit me that I have only had 2 years of healthy running.  What if I get to have 5!  What kinds of things could I do and accomplish?  What about 10...or 20 years of running?  How many more wonderful years of racing do I have ahead of me?  I will never know until they happen, but there is a chance for more!


I was so grateful for the beautiful evening run, jog, plod.  I am thankful for health and movement.  And I am especially glad that when one door closes, many others seem to open.