There are days I tell myself I'll wake up and go for a run straight away without having coffee or eating or anything. Then there are days I actually do it pushing past the heaviness in my legs from sleep and the fogginess in my head from dreams. I've been running since I was a kid. Track and field as a sprinter but the real challenge are the longer runs that require willpower when the initial adrenaline rush wears off and it gets boring and feels like a struggle. I've been revisiting the Olympic documentaries produced by Bud Greenspan - classics of the genre  - that inspired me growing up. The names are carved in stone in my mind. Paavo Nurmi, the Finnish legend Emil Zatopek, the Czech runner who always looked like he was about to collapse but was always there at the end stronger than everyone ("today we die a little" he famously said at training). And especially the Ethiopian marathoner Abebe Bikila, who ran in his first Olympic marathon barefoot and seemed to run so effortlessly, his face an impassive mask of dignity and grace. My brother and I would pretend to be him when we ran. In my head was the jazzy soundtrack of the documentary and the hypnotic narration. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTHg4YsD_40&list=PLQem1WFE02VIwF4-N3OWnQ1AfHuuxvECV&index=3
 

Today the sun was out but it was early enough that it was comforting and not punishing. Then the right song came on and I went out fast. I felt faster than I had in a long time like I was outrunning the years. I did just a mile. Four times around the track. But it was the fastest I had run in a long time. The glow I carried to the finish line would last all day. I'm looking forward to next time and trying to get a little faster.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7ZbQzDNVe8