grace

weekend distance:  14 miles
on the iPod:  "more than a feeling" -- boston

I'm a clumsy guy.  It's pretty much every day that I bump into something, trip a little bit, drop my cell phone, or hit my head.  It's embarrassing for me, especially when I step on somebody's toes.  But for whatever reason it never seems to get better, despite making efforts to pay better attention, slow down, and cover myself in bubble wrap.  I can laugh about it when nobody is around, because I know that it's only a matter of time before I bump into something else.  Being clumsy is also the main reason that I don't trail run.  I've got many great friends, Jeremy Pate comes to mind, that completely love a dirt path and have encouraged me to give it a try, but I know that I wouldn't be 100 yards into a trail run before i'd succumb to the first exposed root and be flat on my backside.  Nobody wants that.  I'm a whole lot of things disguised as a runner, but graceful is not one of them, and i'm cool with it.    

So road running it is for me, knees be damned.  This morning found me on what is arguably my favorite stretch of pavement in all of Fayetteville, the Skull Creek trail, for a solo training run as I continue prepping for the NYC Marathon in November.  The humidity was like an instant slap in the face, reminding me that even with all the rain we've had, Arkansas in August is still a grumpy old man, yelling "get out of my yard" at kids playing in the neighborhood.  The Skull Creek trail is truly my playground and i'd run it every day if I could, humidity or no humidity.  

Within the first mile I felt like I was breathing pea soup and my upper body responded accordingly, heating up like an oven set to bake at 375.  There didn't seem to be much traffic around, so I threw caution to the wind and jettisoned my shirt, tossing it as high as possible in a tree next to Academy Sports and hoping it would be there when I got back, not because I was worried about losing the shirt, per se, but rather because I knew i'd need to put it on to go inside Home Depot on the way back, home to the coldest water fountains on the planet.

Less clothing only served to help a bit, because I was already covered in sweat a few miles later when I ran into my good friend Robert James, who is training for the Chicago Marathon. He took one look at me and eschewed a hug or a handshake, commenting that we both were in no shape for jovial, friendly encounters.  He's a great guy and it always makes me so happy to see him on the trails.  I'll be thinking about him when he runs Chicago, home to my first two marathon finishes.  I want to get back to that race dearly and hopefully will be able to.

The humidity settled in like a down comforter over the trail and by the time I got to North Street I looked and felt like a drowned, harassed rat.  Hydration was going to be a must at my turn-around, Dickson Street, and I was already plotting and planning how I was going to finagle some water out of Arsaga's or Chipotle.  Other than being extemely hot, I felt great and my legs were super strong.  Heading down the Maple street hill, I could see plenty of people having morning coffee on the back deck of Arsaga's and was hopeful that I would know at least a few so that I could grab a quick drink of water.  Being a 20+ year Fayettevillian has it's advantages, and one of those is knowing a ton of people.  Sure enough, there were multiple tables with multiple friends enjoying the morning, but I could also see a tailgate tent and really large cooler at the Dickson Street intersection.  At that moment, it was the best thing I could have seen.  

Sure enough, one of the local churches who holds morning services at George's Majestic Lounge, rumored to be the oldest bar in the state of Arkansas, had placed a cooler full of water bottles out for anybody to take.  I drank the entire thing in one single gulp and thanked the folks manning the tent for such a gracious gesture.  It completely took me by surprise and prompted me to think on the run back about ways that I can be gracious in my own life.  Ultimately, I decided that grace is more than tasks or random acts of kindness, but rather an understanding of how to treat people in our lives -- people that we dearly love and even people that we don't know.  The run back was brutally thick with humidity, but I really enjoyed it nonetheless.  My shirt was just where I had left it, and jumping up to get it from the tree made it perfectly clear exactly how my quads felt about the morning's long run.  They weren't happy about the situation at all.  

As summer comes to an end and fall quietly wakes to emerge, the racing calendar is full.  And after a great morning at the Run For The Grapes yesterday, i've still got four more races to prep for the NYC Marathon.  Thinking about them makes me so very happy, as there's nothing more I'd rather do than lace up and run.  It was great to see wonderful friends in Tontitown yesterday, including Mrs. Murie, Jamie Huneycutt, Brian Matchell, and Marta Kiser.  Run For The Grapes is one of my favorite local races every year because they have really nice people, a challenging course, and they serve locally-grown grapes at the finish line.

Lastly, a quick shout-out to CeCe, who was there to run her very first 5K.  She was extremely graceful in telling me that she enjoys reading my blog each week and I didn't know how to respond, as I had never met her and she caught me off guard, so I simply said congratulations right before snapping a picture to remember her first race.  She's a finisher now, and I hope she keeps running.

Run.