Where did the sun go?
I do not like the loss of daylight savings time. Sure, I’m always up for an extra hour of sleep on Sunday morning, and I like that it is light when I get up at 6 (makes getting out of bed much easier)…but, a glance at the clock right now tells me it’s 7:26 pm. I’m pretty sure it is more like 9:30 pm. Not that I’m ready to sleep right now, but in 2 hours, when it is 9:30 and I think it’s 11:30, I will be. Maybe that means I’ll get a proper amount of sleep for the second half of the semester. Although it also means I’m going to have a tough time getting myself to any event starting at 7:30 or 8, resisting the urge to go home because it’s “getting late” at 6:00. Once I get to whereever I’m going, I’ll be fine, and I guess I’ll get used to it, but right now, my biological clock has definitely been thrown a loop.
Even though once it has gotten dark, it’s hard for me to go out again, be it to an event on campus, a study group, or going to work out. If I start out before it is dark, I’m fine. As long as I get on my trajectory and get started with or into whereever I’m headed, not a problem. Getting there is the challenge.
Take today for example: first marathon team evening practice without daylight savings time. When we start at 5:00, it is still just light, and that is just enough. Once I start to run, no problem; in fact, I love running at dusk/night. As with running in the wee hours of the morning as the sun is just coming out, there is something mystical in the half-light.
Running at the end of the day is a huge release. If some not so great things happened during the day, you can run away from them. No, run away is not the right word, because you are not in flight. Rather, you are gaining perspective with the distance you run. Run into the distance, turn around, take a look at your troubles from some miles away, and they don’t seem so big and daunting anymore. And as you come back, you feel bolstered to deal with them, tackle them head on, with a running start as it were.
Or was it a good day? In that case, you are not running, but soaring. Use your run to relish in your joy. You may amaze yourself with how fast you can go. A friend once asked me if I think when I do long training runs. After thinking about it, I realized that I don’t necessarily think when I run, I feel. I let gut instincts take over and guide my mind rather than so called “rational thought.” Who needs that anyway, I do enough of it during the week without letting it infiltrate my runs.
This marathon team season, I have discovered the value of a running partner. While my teammates are always a good support network and I usually ran near the same group of people last year, this year for the first time I consistently have been running with a new teammate Chris and have found that running with another person and actually talking to them, and even not always talking to them, brings a different feel to the run. I have always run with music on. However, I have found that running with Chris, I don’t need to have my music going, even when we’re not talking. If I’m by myself when I run, I still need the music, but on team runs that we stick together, I don’t need it. I end up running holding my turned-off iPod or radio with my headphones around my neck. Sunday I ran 11 miles and didn’t listen to a note, and didn’t miss it either.
