Set

I ran the sun down today. Running the sun up is a completely different experience. Your body wakes slowly with the world around you as you click off the morning's miles. Morning is beginning, it is potential and possibility. The world of bats and foxes turns to one of robins, hawks, and mocking birds. The wind picks up as the warming sun disturbs the air. The sun rise braces me for the day.

I watch the sun, low on the horizon, preparing for its final drop to the earth. The day is closing; my mind always wants to close at sunset. For 37 years, the day's pall has curtained the world and my mind. I continue to run under the blustery blue fall sky. The sun offers no warmth. My run comes easily. Nine miles tick by. My legs feel fresh, effort is the only warmth at this sunset.

The stresses of the summer reduced my weekly mileage to 10 to 20 miles per week. I don't know if I was right or wrong, or weak, or unfocused to let it happen. But now is the time to re-balance my life. It is ironic that I find success more stressful than failure. That life continues to give me everything I shoot for startles me. I feel indebted at my good look and beholden to make the best of this fleeting chance. I strive harder to take advantage of this one break of good luck. But the good luck always comes.

9 miles today on this first return to standard time. What I run in the next 7 days is all that matters.