Running is soulful

This was another fabulous treadmill run despite the photo I chose. I'll have to get some photos of my treadmill space and runs. I didn't push or think about time or mileage but simply decided to run for an hour. Once i got to an hour I continued for about a min and a half to round off to seven miles and a cool down. Running at an 8.46 pace is very comfortable and teaches patience and appreciation for each step. The run will take as long as I determined regardless of pace. Being a mileage junkie doesn't come into play. I do want to beat last months mileage of course but because of the flu and the wasp sting it may be a close call.

I really enjoy the run when time is set as the goal and not distance because then there is no pushing. I simply put in the time and the beginning is just as exciting as the end. It enables me not to force the process and avoid injury. It teaches me to just settle into the run and not to rush to get through it. It becomes about the journey not the destination. The eventual completion is a secondary gain to the actual event:the run. Having the treadmill at home has proved to be very convenient and beneficial. I enjoy running at the Y but that requires my husband to watch the baby which interferes with his work and plans. I really try not to have running interfere with life except when preparing for a big race. I don't obsess about the run or the sport as it really is a very matter of fact part of my life.

It would be difficult to imagine how my life would look or what other areas of my life would be cultivated. As a side note, I did think a bit about karate while running today and I miss it but not enough to squeeze dojo time back into my nights or to cough up the extra money every month. If I really want to do it then I can practice my katas at home.

It is very important, imperative really, that running doesn't become some hollow secularized activity for alone time. It is integrally connected with my spiritual life and religious rule. When I am in the flow of the run it always brings me back to my relationship with God. Running meanders along the long quiet path to God where patience, effort and commitment bring forth the fruit of prayer where peace, joy and strength are commonplace. It is the long term view of living with God not the one time Pentecostal view of inoculation but rather the persistent reoccurring interplay and exchange with our Creator. The runners high or flow is the body catching up with the heart in the nous of the mind freeing up the soul to remember its Redeemer. Running is liberation from the distractions of this world and unites the body and material world with the bodiless, internal, eternal self: the soul. Running is soulful.