I had a nice casual treadmill run the other day. It’d been a busy day, and I wasn’t handling the stress as well as normal. At one point, I almost burst into tears because I arrived at the mailbox outside the post office in time at 5:02, just in time to see the mail collector departing with all the mail. I was mailing get-well cards. This wasn’t a late mortgage payment or college application. IT DIDN’T MATTER.
At that point I knew I needed a run, so I plopped Will and Andrew down in front of The Cat in the Hat Christmas, and put in a few miles on the treadmill. Afterwards I grabbed water and made them a picnic dinner, which was so exciting I figured they would actually eat the peanut butter & jelly with raspberries and carrots rather than maiming each other while I showered.
This was about 90% effective… no one got hurt, but there were some carrots creatively distributed throughout the upholstery when I came down later. The nice thing about running, however, is you no longer care that much about picking up a couple carrots off the couch.
A few carrots should never be a big deal, but when they’re at the end of a long day of cajoling your preschool age children not to overflow sinks, steal the scissors, or otherwise give in to their 2 and 4 year old male preference for utter mayhem…. a carrot on the couch can feel like the last straw.
Running changes all of that. It felt like my giant chalk-board of resiliency was suddenly a blank slate. Carrots were a small price to pay for my shower, a short holiday tv special a small price to pay for 3.1 uninterrupted miles on the treadmill. I had regained my sanity and perspective, with just a short workout. Having 30 minutes away from the kids to run, and 15 to shower, may have helped almost as much as the exercise endorphins.
Not only did I feel better, I also got a taste of how much I’ve improved with my running over the past few years. I ran at a comfortable pace, and clocked in 3.1 miles in under 30 minutes. Two years ago, running a 5k in under 30 minutes was my race pace… and I could JUST barely make it. Now, it’s a casual pace for a short run.
Feels pretty good.
That picture sure brought back a lot of memories. When my kids were little, they LOVED carpet picnics!