Last week food poisoning sidelined me from any physical activity. I literally came home and collapsed into bed each night, chugging Gatorade and eating saltines along the way. After a week of this routine, I finally felt up to a run this afternoon. I want to start off by saying once I have been away from running from awhile I like to “seduce” my way back into it. I like to travel to exotic places and run in a new environment, it gets the running mojo revved if ya know what I mean. Today was definitely a running seduction type of day.
My exotic location happened to be a local park on the other side of town — a huge park, the best park in Denver they all say (who are “they” anyways?) As I turned the corner and the park came into view I was hit with a wave a nausea so bad I thought my food poisoning had returned. People… EVERYWHERE. The path was so crowded it looked like a human version of bumper cars. Hoards of people plugged into their iphones, running with frowns on their faces and annoyed side glances at everyone around them. It was, for lack of better words, a human conveyer belt.
All my excited anticipation whooshed out of me. Like a teenager who almost made it to 2nd base and got left in the cold I was immediately turned off. I had a couple decisions facing me at this point. Go home and pout on the couch while watching DVRed Bachelorette, get out of my car and hop on the conveyer belt of sweaty, angry zombie runners, or find another spot.
I found another spot.
The jungled path, my spot
Swamp bugs, my company
The river, my soundtrack
Branch scrapes, my battle wounds
The sun, my running partner
My body, renewed and full and free
(The conveyer belt is overrated, you should really get off it from time to time.)
