While driving into work this morning I was running through my mind what tasks needed to be completed when I sadly realized I have to stay late at work for a mandatory meeting. Three and a half hours past 4pm is not so bad....until you consider I will have to drive about an hour across the valley to get home. That puts me arriving home at about 8:30pm, which is exactly 8hrs from when I have to leave for work again tomorrow morning. As this reality dawned on me I struggled to determine what I would do in the two and a half hours between work and this meeting. Then an idea dawned in the back of my mind...I could go for a run this morning and cross train after work. Hmmm...
I should explain that Monday's are typically a cross train day for me. I get to work early enough to spend a good 45min-Hour with weights and other such nonsense. Tuesday and Wednesday are currently my run days, so to run this morning meant either adjusting my entire work out schedule for the week or just add another run in. As I drove I mulled over the possibilities. Did I really want to run in the morning and do my cross training in the afternoon? That would be somewhat overzealous, no? And who knows what it could lead to! What if I became one of those run all the time people?! This could be dangerous. And it's not like following my regular routine and taking that three hours to just rest would be lazy exactly. I would still have done a solid workout for the day.
While parking my car I made my decision. There was no pressing reason to do more than necessary, sometimes more is not better it's just more. I would follow my regular routine. As I crossed the street I switched my iPhone from it's current audio book to my running music. I found myself walking toward the running path by the canal and watching the back of giant Koi crest the placid water as I stretched....it was all too inviting, I was going to run.
There is an irrigation canal that runs just west of my new work location. It heads south into the city of Gilbert and is flanked on it's western border by fields of corn and alfalfa. Inside the canal swim multitudes of the largest and most beautiful Koi I have ever seen. The water is clear enough you can watch their solid muscular bodies sometimes slicing through the water like torpedoes, sometimes suspended as if they had no concern but to float with the calm current of the channel. To the south and east of the canal are beautiful mountain ranges. Shadows touching their peaks and canyons like folds of a soft blanket thrown over the rocky heights. The fields impregnate the surrounding air with the odor of warm earth, growth and decay. The odors of agriculture, the odors of my childhood. Every mile or so there are dams created for the even distribution of water to other smaller canals. At each of these crossroads the water at once becomes a bubbling cauldron as a miniature waterfall is formed by the changing water levels. The sound is at once arresting and soothing, enticing you to stay and listen to it's melody.
This morning the air was cooler than the past week has been. There was a very quiet breeze that even bordered on feeling fresh as it touched my cheeks which were hot from my exertions. As I ran I allowed the surroundings to soak into my being. The colors, odors, sounds even the feel of the path beneath my feet...I wanted to take it all in and make it a permanent part of my memory. Arriving at my first road crossing I paused to look back toward the northeast. The sunrise was stunning. A bright orange orb rising from behind the mountains and ascending through clouds. The sky blushed a rich pink hue as warm yellow fingers of sunlight sliced through the clouds and burst out onto the world. It was a sunrise of singular beauty, painted by my creator just for me to see in that perfect moment.
I won't lie and say I am now perfectly happy with getting home late tonight and not having as much rest as I am used to...but I will say I am thankful. Thankful for the rising of the sun, for another day full of opportunity, for the gift of being physically able to exercise and sweat, for the smell of alfalfa and for the beautiful Koi.
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