Running -- a Marriage

Running has this way of sweeping you off your feet in the beginning. It is like the only fresh breath of air you could never have imagined taking and you often wonder "What did I do without my darling love, Running?" We change when we start running in ways that can only be measured by the person who puts on their shoes everyday and makes contact with the earth, while at the same time taking flight. It is unique like each of us who fall so deeply in love with it. In the beginning, we will do anything for our lover, anytime, anywhere -- we just want to make sure that we are progressing just the way they are meant to be, falling deeper in love, building and understanding... Time moves and the level of commitment intensifies and the day come that we dive in for the life long commitment with our soul mate, the sweet love that helped us evolve and grow into the person that we are on that day. The wedding, the honeymoon, the settling into a wonderful routine -- all magical and yes we must work for it and we do. Time moves forward, as only time can, and one day it is raining "too hard" to go out and run and in the next few weeks we notice that things keep popping up and we are struggling with the "the run". It takes more effort, and sometimes we are up for it and sometimes we go through the motions, but we keep trying. Sometimes we fight and scream and stomp down the trail and sometimes we are silent, watching and wondering what to do next, what will be around the next corner. One day our running shoes peaking out from the shoe closet speak to us -- "Come on buddy, it is time to hit the trail/pavement for a long slow run, clear your head and run, run, run." We get out here, out from under all the obligations and responsibilities of life and we remember, life has a way of getting in the way of love and living, it sneaks up and before we know it we are too busy, too tired, we are bored and so many other natural emotion felt by the best of us. We remember that we are in this for the long haul -- rain or shine, we ride the waves of greatness and the magic that lives in the daily run. And we run on....