Go -- No Tokens

One thing that I’ve always had a difficult time with is “completion”. Nothing is permanent in the world, and more specifically, nothing is permanent in my life. And nothing seems to last very long, either. It’s always annoyed me that chores are so repetitive; that some things you can’t just do really well once and then let it go at that. How I wish I could get my apartment really, really clean and be done with it forever. Unfortunately, whenever I’m not paying attention, it gets messy and I’ve got to invest in the work to clean it up again. Some people say life is a trip, but really it's more cyclical than that... In a way, life is a trip you take over and over again.

As it is with running. It requires persistence, constant training, and continuous reassessment. It would be great if running were like compounding interest, where you could just invest early and watch yourself grow and get faster without a lot of effort later on - but it’s not; when you don’t keep at it, you lose it. I find this especially true after an injury or taking time off after racing. I get lazy and don’t want to put the effort in. Starting up again later is so much harder.

Most days I love running, but some days I hate it. Even on days I hate it, I still drag myself out, because I know it’s going to be harder to do tomorrow or the day after. It’s a constant battle for a routine that allows me to arrange my life and well-being properly. Running keeps my mind tidy and my body fit. Otherwise, like my apartment, things get messy.

And the worst mess that you can get stuck with cleaning up is you.


Moving on...