Rogers, MN

North Community Park

Run Time: 62:16 + 2-minute kick

Not high-60s and sunny, but not freezing either. It had rained the night before, and part of the day, so I felt fortunate to get an hour of dryness to run in. I stayed in Fargo the night before, and there was a thunderstorm in the middle of the night. I woke up and thought, “I hope this doesn’t wake up Barb.” Then I remembered I was in Fargo. It wasn’t likely to wake up my wife in Michigan.

This was a boring run, in a boring place, on a boring sales trip. The day was gray, and so was my mood. The park was fine – wet turf but runnable for about 50% of the circuit around the park. It was a slog. I got to the hotel early, so I was running early enough to not feel like I was behind on everything else, but some days running is just a slog. The win is that I ran anyway.

I could take inventory of the reasons for my feelings of gray, but why do that? Why not take inventory of reasons why it was weird that I felt gray? I am in good health. I make decent money. I am married to a beautiful, smart, funny, interesting, unpredictable and vibrant woman. I have three beautiful, smart, funny, interesting, unpredictable and vibrant (but in completely different ways) children (they might have inherited some traits from my wife). I have a beautiful, smart, funny, interesting, very unpredictable and vibrant grandchild, with another on the way. My brain works pretty well still. I have goals and calendar items and no lack of things that I want to do. I have a great measure of personal freedom, which has extreme value.

All of these things, and many others like them, do not keep me from feeling gray on any particular Minnesota fall day, but they help me to remember that all feelings are temporary. Everything, in fact, is temporary. This is consolation when things are not so great — less so when things are great. Thank goodness, though. I want them to be temporary for as long as possible.