It had been a frustrating day. Nothing went right. There were so many things I had to fix. And in a hurry. I didn’t want this right now. I didn’t need this right now. I wasn’t going to face this right now. I needed to get away. ASAP.
I laced up my sneakers. I put on my most comfortable running shirt. I made sure that I had two bottled waters handy and that my running watch was charged. I headed out. I just wanted to get away. Away from all that was on my mind. I got my iPod on full volume. I’d blast it to 11 if it went that high. I wanted to drown out my thoughts.
I set a good pace. I started sweating almost instantly. The hot afternoon sun in Miami didn’t help much, but all was secondary. I had to run. And run.
I was going harder than I normally went, and began to tire. That’s when I saw him. The runner in the distance. He had a pretty good pace going himself, but he didn’t seem to be pulling away. I immediately set a goal for myself. Catch that runner. Doing so would keep my mind focused on one thing, and one thing only, and keep any other thoughts from creeping in. I immediately sped up. Almost as if on cue, so did he. He must have been a good quarter of a mile ahead of me, so I knew it would take some effort to catch him. But if he were to speed up also, I would never catch him. I pushed harder. To my dismay, so did he. I slowed down a bit to catch my breath a bit, only to notice he was doing the same. Could he see me? Hear me? Sense me? Not likely… after all I was almost a quarter mile back. But somehow his pace mirrored mine.
I observed him as I ran. His stride seemed familiar. When you run you see alot of people running, and can’t help but fall in stride with some runners on more than one occasion as the weeks pass. Yet, he didn’t look like any of those runners. Still, there was something familiar about the guy. I decided to accelerate again to see if I can make up some ground. This time, not only did he accelerate, but he turned a corner. Damn! It would take me close to 2 minutes to get to that corner I thought. But I gotta catch this dude. I pushed myself and eventually turned the corner. I looked down the block and noticed… he wasn’t there. He must have made another turn somewhere. I had lost him.
Dejected I reversed my path back to the street I had been running on, ready to follow my footsteps back the way I had come. I ran for about 5 minutes with my head down trying to find my second wind after going so hard for what turned out to be more than an hour. I finally looked up. There he was. Now he was only about a tenth of a mile ahead of me. He looked tired too. Here was my chance I thought. My steps began to quicken. As before, so did his. But he seemed even more tired than me. It almost appeared as if he had done everything in his power to lose me, only to find me on his tail again. I’m sure he wasn’t happy about the fact that I was still on his tail. But it appeared that he was out of gas. I was sure that if I maintained my current pace I would catch him. No, I was positive I would catch him.
The closer I got, the more I realized that I knew this person from somewhere. His stride, his posture, his clothes. Him. Now, I had another reason to catch him. I needed to see who he was. I pushed. He tried to do the same, but struggled to keep his distance. He still hadn’t turned around to see me, and it was only now that he could have heard me. How did he know I was back here. I was still so confused.
Now I was within 200 yards of him, and I knew I would catch him. His energy was gone. So, too, it seemed his will to continue. If I didn’t know any better, it appeared as if now he was actually waiting for me. I’d be upon him within a minute or two, unless he just took off on me, which I knew was not likely anymore. I could hear my heart pounding now. I was sweating profusely, the salt from the sweat stinging my eyes. It wasn’t until now that I realized how tired I was getting. It was a good thing that I was about to catch him, because i felt like I was on the verge of passing out. I was now 50 feet behind him… (I know this guy). I was 30 feet behind him… (Wait a second). Ten feet behind him (It can’t be!). I finally pulled up next to him, and he turned to look at me.
I turned to look at me. I looked myself in the eye. “Can I stop running now? I’m tired of running. You caught me. Can we go home? Can I go home? I, we, have things we need to take care of. I looked back at the runner who’d been running from me, and just nodded. “Yeah, I think it’s time I stop running.” I turned off my iPod. I walked back home with my thoughts. There would be no more hiding… no more running.
I got home. I opened the door. I entered. I closed the door. There was work to do.