SQUINT

If you squint and look north, it looks like a scene from an 80's Cold War movie. The guard towers hovering in the fog. Menacing. Two miles north, the lights from the bridge, drape across the misty morning sky. Another week starting. Mostly quiet this morning, save the hum that's the city coming to life. The brown noise of traffic, trains, ships and cars. I forget the ships are here a lot of times. We all do. The levees hiding the tops as tons of fertilizer and god knows what else float up and down the river.

Slowly unsquinting and the goalposts come into focus. A football field, a soccer stadium, two baseball stadiums, a softball stadium, a vet school, and a cathedral to sport, Tiger Stadium. All within plain view, a brilliant red sunrise, reality crashing onto corneas now fully open to the sights. I squint again, to push it back out a little, to steal more of the morning for myself.

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This morning, like many from the last two months, is filled with voices, laughter, heavy breathing and running. The kids I coach knocking out the last of the season's workouts, preparing for the last two cross country meets. Cross country, to me, one of the hardest, most under appreciated sports around. The courses 3-5 miles in length are hard. Hilly sometimes, muddy others, always challenging. The races require you to run an almost all out 400 meters and then settle into a pace you pray to god you can maintain for the next 13-18 mins, dependent. The finish lines full of collapse, of triumphant screams of fulfillment, of tears and always pain. Lots of it.

Running removes all the hiding places. All the excuses. There's you, time, and pain. How much are you willing to endure?  For how long?  Can you push for another 200 meters, another two miles?  Where's the edge?  Are you willing to ride it like a razor?  To pop with a half mile to go?  Who will you let running mold you into?

We switched to the mornings to escape the heat. The same heat I constantly complain about. Thick and brutal, but worth forgoing sleep to escape. I thought it would be a daily challenge. Instead, the mornings fueled them, just like they do me. A living, breathing visual of what runner's high is. Laughter, positivity, and a jump start to their day.

Brilliance.

#hugsandhi5s