Assembling a Great Run

Running has been a soul crushing catalog of everything that sucks over the last few weeks.  Sometime in early to mid August, the wheels just came off and nearly all of my runs just turned to excrement!  Heaping piles of EXCREMENT!  Mile after mile spirit snatching crappy crappy runs.  The only thing that helped was running trails, but then scheduling and late summer thunderstorms conspired to take trail running away, leaving me to slog along the city streets of Raleigh.  My mileage has been sinking quick, runs have gotten cut short, and I've been wondering if I am suffering from burnout.  Or perhaps, it is anxiety caused by my impending fatherhood.  To top things off my shoes smelled worse than Basil's litter box and all of the music on my I-pod was putting me into a coma!  Arrgh!

Luckily, yesterday seemed to offer me hope that things are going to get better.  Aside from the weather improving, and the realization that my fall allergies begun, which require some medication, I had three big things come together.

1. Brooks Ghost 5's
2. I Was Totally Destroying It
3. Angry Angel Beer

Last week my wife and I decided that, even though the Asics I had worn during the summer had many more miles on them, the stench was too much and they had to go.  I wasn't really happy with the clunky nature of the shoe, so I decided to try something different.  Luckily, the running store that I shop at had a pair of Ghost 5's in my 15 wides!  As soon as I put them on I knew this was it.  I did two short runs in the earlier in the week and the felt awesome. However, during my run on Sunday, I realized that I had long last found "my" shoe and know how Cinderella felt when she put on the glass slippers!

Also, One of my friends posted a song from a band I Was Totally Destroying It that I had seen a few years back and really liked but hadn't bought any of their Cd's.  So last week, I bought I bought Preludes their 2011 offering, and wow!  It was just what I needed.  I love the whole CD.  It is awesome when you find a local band that you really like and can easily identify with.  I listened to this CD three times over the course of my 10 miler.  Both the music and the lyrics were appealing and help push me along as I ran.

Confidentially or maybe not, in two of their songs I Was Totally Destroying It: All Get Lucky and With You Now the lyrics refer to someone as an Angry Angel, which is interesting because a local brewery that I like Big Boss Brewing Company makes a beer called Angry Angel and I just happened to have one in my fridge.  Every time those songs would played I would begin to think of just how good that beer was going to taste when I got home.  It was great fuel for an awesome run.

. . . And awesome it was.  I tackled 10 miles for the first time in nearly a month, and more importantly, I finished this run stronger than I started it.  I can't recall the last time that I felt stronger over the last five miles that I did over the first.  I just hope that this run is a sign of things to come and not just a momentary blip.