So I know that I still have a bunch of race reports to share, and a bunch of other running related things to blog about... but the other day, Mark Remy from Runner's World posted a poem that really touched me.  I've posted it below in entirety if you are too lazy to click the links that I always give in my blog posts...

Any way, Ray sent it to me while he was off at work the other day, and I've been thinking about it ever since. I've since seen people on facebook linking to it like crazy. And every time I see the link, I click on it, and make sure to read this poem again.

And each time, it moves me.

So much so, that I thought it important to share.

And I think the reason that it is important to share, is because it reminds me that sometimes... life just sucks.

But as people who run (see, I still can't bring myself to label myself a "runner"), we have a coping mechanism in place.

And so yeah, sometimes life just sucks.

I'm not going to say that running fixes all of those sucky moments, but I do believe that it can make sucky situations suck just a little bit less.

And for this, I am grateful. Now, where did I put my shoes?

So I Went for a Run

Spoiler alert: Things got better. When you're a runner, they always do.

By

Mark Remy

Published

April 2, 2013

I was angry, so I went for a run. And things got better.

I was confused, so I went for a run. And things got better.

I was exhausted, so I went for a run. And things got better.

I was lost, unsure, empty, afraid. Certain that whatever was left of my sanity had snapped, had come untethered and floated away, to a place so high and remote that I would never see it again, and that even if I did, I wouldn't recognize it.

So I went for a run. And things got better.

I felt like things could not possibly get worse, so I went for a run. And things got better.

(Another time, I felt like things could not get much better. I went for a run. Things got much better.)

After enough miles, over enough runs and enough years, I realized: No matter what, no matter when, or where, or why, I can find my shoes and go for a run and things will get better.

And that realization? Just knowing that?

It made things better.