Sanity Check

This morning was rough.  As I was rushing to get my girls out the door my phone alerted me that I had a meeting with the head of school at 8:45.  The day before I had failed to look at my calendar and double booked myself for another meeting in a different town at about the same time.  Well, I thought, maybe I can make it work.  I ran into school, ditched the girls and asked if we could start the meeting early which turned out to be fine.  We raced through our agenda and then I rushed out to try and make it to the next one.  Somehow I pulled it off but I was pretty flustered at this point.  After my second meeting, I jumped in my car and headed down to pick up one of my daughters from school so I could take her to an appointment on the other side of town.  While I was waiting at a light, I noticed another driver trying to turn left into a parking lot that I was blocking.  Thinking I was doing a good deed, I backed up to try and give him enough space to get in.  Little did I know a small and unnoticeable Honda Accord had snuck in behind me just as I started to back up.  I slammed right into his car.  I tried to hold it together as I pulled over to exchange info.  I asked him, as nicely as possible to speed it up, because I really didn't want to be late for my daughter's appointment.  He was a very nice high school kid on his way to work but, unfortunately, my stress was not registering.  It took everything I had not to lose it.  I then flew back to school, scooped up my daughter and headed to the other side of town.  When I finally pulled into my driveway I was fuming.  I threw down my bags, put on my sneakers and hit the road.  I left all my "gear" behind; my watch, my heart rate monitor, my sunglasses; all of it.  I didn't need it.  Ok, I did need my iPod, but that's it.  I bolted down the street at a pace I couldn't hold for long and that was fine.  Today there were no rules for my workout.  No hills, no repeats, no warm-up or cool down.  It was simply a "mental run" and my only goal was to burn off the frustration and anger that I was carrying.  I zoned out and tried to let it go.  By the time I got back to my house, I'd managed to leave some of that mental baggage behind.  I love to train and to race and I'm always trying to improve as a runner.  But, today, I ran for my head and to improve as a person.  Sanity?  Check.  At least for now.


Listen to this:
New House - Reptar