SPLENDIFEROUS FANTASTICAL AMAZARIFFIC BLISSITUDE!!

And how was your day? :-)

I got to run outside today (for the first time in TWO WEEKS!!) and nearly ‘sploded from the wondrousness of it.

Let me try to explain. Running inside on a gerbil wheel is like a diet made up entirely of K rations—it’ll keep you from dying of starvation, but “eating” consists of shoving handfuls of sawdust in your mouth and choking it down. There’s no pleasure to be had from it. By the same token, running on a treadmill resembles real running about as much as K rations resemble real food. It’s just so dead. (If zombies ran, they would run on a treadmill.) It’s the exercise equivalent of choking down sawdust. And frankly, the indoor track isn’t much better—merely a bigger gerbil wheel with views of the roof and the parking lot.

But oh! Being outside today! Everything is so alive, dynamic and flowing and shifting from moment to moment. There’s the sun, a welcome burst of white warming my right cheek, and the wind on my face feels like a tropical breeze (it’s a balmy 38 degrees) as it whooshes into me. My feet adjust to the ever-changing terrain under my feet and lift with authority each time they depart terra firma, and even in mid-January, there are sparrows chirping and a woodpecker boring noisily into a tree as I run past. The sky is cerulean blue with thin swipes of cloud smeared back and forth over it, as if applied by a sloppy housepainter, and a Cessna drones overhead like an oversized carpenter bee. The air smells fresh and clean and well-scrubbed, with an occasional tangy hint of wood smoke from someone’s chimney.

The humans are out and about too, and an unfortunate UPS guy gets doused with my crazy happy talk as I bop along, my arms pistoning out and back like The Little Engine That Could. I’m not entirely sure what I said, but it was something euphoric about the weather. I think.

By the time I hit the halfway point and turn around, my gloves are tucked into a pocket, my quarter-zip midlayer is unzipped, and I am grinning at oncoming drivers in a way that makes them look around for their cell phones to inquire if anyone’s escaped from the local looney bin. A school bus pfffs to a stop, red lights flashing, and disgorges a passel of gangly middle-school boys who promptly snatch up handfuls of grainy wet snow and fling them at each other. I smile as I run past and figure I can sprint away from any missiles lobbed in my direction.

I actually feel a pang of sadness when I hit the “stop” button on my watch. I covered 2.12 miles in 23:08 for a 10:55 pace: faster than on the gerbil wheel, but not at all surprising given the heady surroundings. Aaaah, outdoor running, how I have missed you!