A Tradgic Run

Running never quite offers up the same ambiance. So many factors at play to adjust the desired result. Better we just flow along and see where it takes us than be disappointed when the result strays from our expectation.

One never knows when it strikes, at times as foreign to us as a Summers day on Lakeshore Drive in January. A run such as this is etched into our hearts as we feel the pain of another and wonder what order, if any, life's random assaults have. Moving one's body briskly along these hills when consumed with the grief of another, and one's own, is trying and troublesome, and offers up the excuse to slow down or simply quit. Tragedy slowly creeps like the ever prevalent misfortune that begot a family member of mine over the New Years weekend.

The overwhelming feeling and urge to stop the run is all encompassing and must be dealt with in the same manner as the grief facing my loved one. To continue on is the only logical option, but so shrouded is that line of reasoning it calls into question ones resolve. So we are tested. We are dealt a hand that can go either way. If the choice seems so simple then why do we struggle so? Simply said, we are mere flesh and bone, not the great warriors our ego leads us to believe. We must dig so deep within ourselves to convene our vigor that we seem to drain the very force we are relying on right out of us. And at that moment when we want to give up completely, when we feel we can not run another stride, not take another breath, not bear the burden of yet another one of life's insidious jokes, it is in that instant that we often see clarity and find the strength to continue on. Tragedy will call into question ones frivolous life. It will show you who you really are and what you are truly made of. So the legs keep moving and the arms continue pumping and the heart and lungs persist in striving and the will to sustain is carried on.

Trials and tribulations are often the cornerstones of great progress. We must not let anything slow us to the pace of submission. Great runners know this and use it to make themselves stronger. We are only as good as we allow ourselves to be. We simply must never stop!