The final countdown...

I went for my final run in this town today. Tomorrow I'll be loading a U-Haul and moving back to my hometown to live in an RV in my parent's driveway and explore the world of unemployment. Sidenote: the guy who caused me to make this decision (when he tried to break my office door down to kill me) got arrested again and is currently in jail, so I feel much safer. By the time he gets out I'll be far away. This makes me happy.

What makes me sad is the thought of never running in this town again. I started running here a year ago and since then I've found my favorite paths, discovered where the mean dogs live, and know the mileage of certain routes by heart. It makes me sad to think of starting all over. I decided to go on a run this morning that combined all my favorite routes--a little of one road, a hill on another road. I wanted it to be a combination of all my favorite runs. I wanted it to be like my best memories of running: picking up speed on a lazy summer night, children and dogs scampering through the streets, elderly men sitting on a porch and drinking beer while they waved and cheered me on, finding a stray sprinkler to run through and enjoy the mist of cool water, reaching the crest of a hill and shooting down the other side just as the sun set and the sky turned twelve different shades of pink and amber. I wanted it to be one of the good memories, so I could leave on a happy note rather than a bittersweet one.

It wasn't. It kind of sucked, actually. It's cold out today, and raining in the sort of way that isn't really rain. Rather than actual drops the air is just turned to mist and rain sort of drizzles in a miserable, gray manner. No one was outside to wave and cheer me on because they're all smart enough to be inside. The biggest hill in town, the one that I used to shoot up like nobody's business, kind of kicked my ass because I've let my running slide in recent weeks due to injuries and near death experiences that left me afraid to be alone. I had to stop to re-lace a shoe and walk up the very top of the hill because my stupid foot started hurting, and I'd rather not re-injure it as badly as I did the first time. I felt really slow and sluggish, and had side stitches several times because I drank way too much water before I left to go on a run. But when I got back after 5.75 miles, I felt good. I'm happy that I can still run that far, happy that I am finally starting to realize that I can't let this one man make me afraid to live my life, happy at the thought of impending adventures.

So I might not remember my final run in this tiny town as my best run ever, but it is one more run that I've completed. That's good enough for me.