The road goes ever on and on...

Day 78: 1 mile.
Day 79: 1 mile.
Day 80: 2 miles.
Day 81: 1 mile.

It's getting colder outside and our house is starting to smell of winter.  Warm air pours out of the vents with the faint hint of smoke from dust collected since spring.  The smell of food seems to hang around longer as light dishes turn to heavier fare for the longer nights.  The sky is a pale grey today and it feels cold despite the fact that I have not ventured outside.

For almost three months I've run at least a mile every day.  I started this whole endeavor in order to break out of a rut I feared would ruin me and it worked.  Each mile showed me I could change, that the path ahead of me would be what I made of it and it need not make me. I've driven my wife crazy, been through mud, rain and a half marathon in the last 3 months and I would change not a thing. But, even wonderful things must shift and transform as time marches on.

I haven't ventured outside today because I feel like crap. My body aches, my throat is scratchy, my head and chest are congested and I spent most of last night in a tossing, turning, semi-sleep in which the Independent Weekly was somehow involved in an elaborate plan to alleviate my symptoms through a series of safe-houses and helpful families. Believe me, it doesn't make any more sense to me than it does to you.

So, in answer to all the people who inquired "What do you do if you're sick?" when I started this streak, I now have the answer.  I end it.  I've brought up the idea of running a quick mile two or three times today and this is the conversation which transpires:

Me: I think I can run a mile today.
Body: [incredulously] Really?
Me: Yeah, I think so.  I'm feeling much better and the fresh air would feel good.
Body: OK.  If you want to spend another feverish night with dreams where you're Richard Nixon in 1970s Chile eating pork and avocado sandwhiches that's a great idea.
Me: ...That's what might happen?
Body: Yes.  That or you'll think your pillow is a giant rancid marshmallow and you'll eat it with salt and vinegar.
Me: OK, no mile today.

So the streak comes to an end.  I don't intend to quit running or writing but the overall impetus for both will shift.  I think it's time.  With winter in the air it's time to make some changes of my own.  I plan to start training for my second half marathon in January and another mud run seems to be in the cards as well.  The drive, motivation and spirit remain the same, the vehicle, the process must change.

"The road goes ever on and on, down from the door where it began." -J.R.R. Tolkein

Ryan