I run so my feet can hit the pavement. Wait, they pound the pavement.  When they hit they release pain, hurt, suffering.  I run to sweat. The type of sweat which burns you from within and releases pent-up anger and angst. Why Run? Life isn’t always fair.  It can take people from us thru disease, accidents, addictions, cancer, hate.  It can hurt people. Life doesn’t do it intentionally but some people hate life, wish for a different life, unsuccessfully search for the answers to life.   Life can make people cry, cry as if there is no end to the weeping horror.  Why we ask between the tears, why? Life isn’t fair.

So I run.  2.62 to 26.2, whatever I can squeeze in or have the power to finish.  I train in wind, snow, sleet and rain.  The heat of summer when the rubber on my Mizunos is on the brink of melting.  The icy, harsh January frost when my shoes fail to grip the sleek covered roads.  Sometimes I grip a tree for balance, a fence for protection. I run to make the bad pieces of life fade away.

I’ve fallen. I’ve fallen to my knees.  I scattered my own blood on the pavement. My elbow, my knee, my head.  Running has hurt my body. It has beaten me down but it has let me beat down the ugly demons who try to derail the happiness in life.  It has brought me to tears when all I wanted to do was run from sadness. I’ve cried and I’ve been defeated at times but I always come back to the pavement.   The pavement will always be there for me and I must always be there for it.