A mental punch to the groin

This afternoon I had a grueling run, including a mental punch to the groin.  I had to move my swim from Thursday to Friday, due to some work conflicts, but I didn’t think it would affect my run too much.  I’m not sure if it did or not, but today’s run was not good.  It was only an hour run, with the first half not being so bad; however, the second half was just horrible.  My back was killing me, it felt like I was running through one of those ball pits for kids (the ones that always smell like pee), and I was dragging along, feeling sorry for myself.  With about five minutes left, this Air Force weenie (no offense to my AF brothers and sisters), ran past me like I was standing still.  Now, I’ve been in enough races that I don’t normally care about that kind of stuff anymore.  I’ve been passed by old folks, young folks, big folks, little folks, boys, girls, you name it, and I’m sure they’ve all run by me at some point in my life; however, today was different.  How dare this dude run by me with such ease, while I sucked so badly?  Sadly to say, I converted all my pain and self-defeating attitude to a not so positive emotion, hate.  Then I spent the next five minutes focusing on two things:

1. Mentally trying to make the guy trip over himself. (it didn’t work)
2. Finish the run with some dignity and stop being such a pansy about it. (that did work).  

I finished the run, still felt like crap, but finished nonetheless.  I did do a 25 minute yoga session that focused on flexibility afterward and it actually made me feel a lot better, both physically and mentally. 

So, I guess I should thank that little guy for motivating me to finish up and thank God for not having the ability to move stuff around with my mind, like some crazy Jedi dude. I don’t think I’d be very nice.

I hope everyone has a great weekend.  Cheers!