Why I run.

Yesterday was a rough day.

*6:45am meeting
*I had to bring cupcakes for a coworker's birthday, and the pouring rain complicated the transport
*I have a student teacher (sort of) who started yesterday, who is supposed to be mainly observing me, but she keeps trying to teach my lessons or give the kids the answers, and she doesn't.ever.stop.talking. All day long -- today, too.
*In the middle of my day, I had to put out a fire that had nothing to do with the class I was responsible for at the moment.
*I had to run our academic team meeting, while "hosting" the coworker's birthday celebration.
*The two times I had any down time yesterday was when I went to the bathroom -- and the student teacher followed me down the hall for one of those trips.
*I got at least 3 different paperwork tasks I was to do that got piled up on my desk because I never got 5 minutes to address them
*I had to have a difficult conversation with my newest student (the one who's confined to a wheelchair)
*and on, and on, and on.

I was exhausted when I got home. It was cold, dark, and rainy. What did I do? I laced up my shoes, drove over to my sister's, and fired up her new treadmill.

I started with a slow pace -- about 9:50ish -- and just ran.

I watched an old home video that was in the VCR. I looked around the basement, and out the tiny window that lets you see the tires of the cars in the driveway. I talked to Rocket, my sister's Boston who sat next to the TM the entire time. I listened to my ipod, and eventually even sang along to the tunes.

With each passing mile, I could feel the stress of the day leave me.

My sister and nephews come home when I was around mile 4. She asked how far I was going. I told her, until I feel like stopping.

When I hit mile 7, I cranked up the pace. Worked from an 8:13 to an 8:00 to a 7:56 pace for that mile. The three year old came down and asked when it was his turn, so I decided to stop at 8 miles. I did that last mile nice and slow.

When I stepped off that treadmill after more than an hour of running, I felt better than I had all day.

And that's why I run.