Today, I found myself in that in-between space of
wanting to crush a run and wanting to curl up on the couch. I got myself moving by way of walking Bella
and, out of the blue, received a text message from a friend up North:
Friend: About to go for my first run since
November and thought of you!
Me: [ immediately inspired to choose the
run over the couch ]
The text conversation went further, but that
was the crux of it. Someone ready to go
out for a run (in the cold NH weather) thought of me and took a minute to tell
me so. Shucks.
Heading out for my suddenly-a-great-idea run, Scott
offered up, “Hey just take it slow if you have to”. I overdosed on Valentine’s Day homemade fudge
the night before, so was definitely feeling it today. I replied, “Definitely” as I hit start on my
watch and left the house. No
expectations; just getting out to move.
Almost immediately, my run felt easy. I glanced at my watch a couple times and
noticed it was hanging in the 8:20/8:30’s range. My negative talk shouted, “Your watch is
always screwed up; that can’t be right”; my positive talk whispered strongly, “Let
the run come to you”. I respond better
to the strong whisper.
Running within the confines of my gated
community, I end up running several loops – albeit changing up the direction at
times to keep it somewhat interesting.
Because of this, I passed the same couple people walking. Several times. Each time, the man with the salt & pepper
beard smiled and cheered, “Nice work young lady, keep it up!” and “Great job!”. I think I passed them four times in total. By the last time I saw them, he cheered harder,
“Wow, doing great….keep it up young lady!” while clapping and making quite a
big deal of my running. That made me
smile so hard.
I’m big on telling people I appreciate them or
something they did. I also strongly
believe in building people up. When I find myself on the recipient end of that, it really makes my moment/day/run.
Kindness is
awesome. It takes nothing to deliver and BOTH sides reap the reward.
