Out of My Element

Today's run was an unusual one.  Even the city's wildlife could tell that.  This morning began with my leaving home just past five taking the oldest car that we still have and filling it with gas on the way downtown.  Once there, I parked it on Howard Street for my oldest son to pick-up and use for a trip he needed to make today.  As I was sending three texts--one to my son to let him know where the car was, one to the person I was going to meet for a run, and one to someone I wanted to wish good luck for the Marine Corps Marathon, I saw a rat run what seemed to be within 3-6 feet of me down Howard Street.  It did pause long enough to look over at me as if to ask "What is a human doing here at this  time of morning?"  There were not man others around.  

On the rest of my run, I saw one more rat as I headed to the Patterson Park area to meet the person I was running with and then had an otherwise uneventful run from Patterson Park to Boston Street to Aliceanna to President to Pratt to Light then looping back to Charles just as we got to Key Highway and making the long trek up Charles to 25th where I cut over to Guilford and then wound my way to 30th and Greenmount before coming home.  

The run was an "easy" 14.  Most times on the weekend I begin and end at the same place unless I am running a race that makes provision to transport runners.  Today was an oddity, and I ran the first three very easily, the five with my friend harder, then four of the final six relatively easy, with the last two being up tempo and pulling the last one in at race pace.  

Why do I title this "out of my element"?  Because of how unusual it was and the look I got from the rat early in the run.

Was there anything else out of my element this weekend?  Only that I continue to be amazed when friends turn up Bible verses that I did not know about that are incredibly meaningful to me.  For example, my one friend pulled out 1 Cor 9:24.  I actually like 1 Cor 9:24-27:

Do you not know that the runners in the stadium all run in the race, but only one wins the prize? Run so as to win.

Every athlete exercises discipline in every way. They do it to win a perishable crown, but we an imperishable one.

Thus I do not run aimlessly; I do not fight as if I were shadowboxing.

No, I drive my body and train it, for fear that, after having preached to others, I myself should be disqualified.

This rings true with me in a few ways.  First, the "Run so as to win" is like advice that my boss gave me.  Don't play to tie.  Don't play to just play.  Play to win.  Not running aimlessly--although some people think that training for a marathon really doesn't serve much purpose.  The key is that no activity in my life should be aimless.  Or if there are things that are aimless they should be in "measured portions" as stress relief.

In any case, I appreciate my friends who point out such things.  And I love to keep running.  I'm now at 1830 for the year.  Within 170 miles of my goal.  This is today's answer to #WhatMakesYouSoar.  

Those are the two main tie ins.