Why We Run: Reason #8,739

I have spent the last two days sitting in a hospital at the bedside of a friend in deep trouble. There is nothing like time spent staring at needles and tubes to put perspective on health, fitness, wellness, and the lovely normalcy of life when ya just live it without giving a thought to all that could go wrong. Sometimes it is in a hospital that we see some of the most dire consequences for decisions that probably were not our best and reap the benefits of those that were.

I also discovered about myself that I've become much more Southern than I thought a Hawaiian could. I found the blunt discussions of bodily functions to be ... uh ... unseemly and frankly too personal for a gentleman caller (uh ... this would be The Surgeon) to be asking of a lady (his suffering patient). I know I know I know. You don't have to tell me how ridiculous it is to recoil. In my own defense, I will tell you that no one is aware of the Scarlett O'Hara mentality but me. I have remained stoic and silent throughout, although I DID Google "the vapors" when I got home this morning, just in case I have to explain having to swoon onto the couch with a lace hankie pressed to my forehead at the next discussion of poopage. (How un-marathon-runner-like will this be???)

I'm home now for a few hours, trying to catch my breath and catch up on sleep and work. But before I do anything, I'm going to tie on my running shoes and go out for a little while to reestablish the simple rhythms of footsteps and raindrops. It's been a bad month in terms of brutal reminders of mortality ... and worse (yeah, there is worse). Running has saved my sanity. Sort of. And believe me when I tell you that MY running has also saved the sanity of other people who could not have endured me.

And this, my friends, is Why We Run: Reason #8,739.

Reasons #1 - #8,738 are "To Run NYC Marathon on November 7."

I wish you an amazing day (with nary an attack of the vapors).