Wednesday, June 29, 2005

Like Water for ... Air

At approximately 6:45 a.m. this morning, 6/29/05, a strange phenomenon of the natural world occurred: invisible rain.

The air simply turned into one giant raindrop, covering the sweltering smoldering sinkhole that d.c. becomes in the summer. It didn't splash down, refreshingly. No, no. It just enveloped the entire city, like the way the fake sky enveloped the fake town in the Truman Show. So if one ran far enough, one would eventually bump into its outer edges, and perhaps through to the outside.

In other words, it's not the heat, honey, it's the humidity.

It was like running through water, my lungs sucking in vain for what few precious oxygen molecules remained. I do believe I became amphibious. Which will come in handy the next time I'm drowning.

Despite not being able to breathe, I finished my four-mile run this morning in 46:24, approximately 36 seconds faster than Monday's run.

I guess I've been breathing air all these years purely out of habit, for kicks, for the fun of it.

One less vice.

8 comments:

Stephanie said...

Ugh. Humidity. That may be the best description of it ever. Good job on your 4 miles and your time on Monday! Yay.

Anonymous said...

Maybe a tri next? :)

jeanne said...

Tri? as in Try Harder? Cuz you can't be meaning a triathalon?!!

Anonymous said...

Can I publish this in Runner's World when it's complete? You are a wonderful writer. Keep up the amazing leaps of faith. We know you can do it.

Rhea said...

Good job! I know what you mean about the humidity. I ran a 5K yesterday (race report in my blog), and I was soaked with sweat even before I started racing. Eeewww.

a.maria said...

hey!!! well done! i ran my fastest four miles (58 seconds faster than ever) last week and i'm pretty sure i told just about everyone i met that day!!! i'm enjoying your stories... i too am training for my first marathon, so i look forward to sharing the experience via blog!!!

good luck this weekend!

Anonymous said...

Yeah, I mean triathalon since you've got the running & now you're good in the water. Just add two wheels & you're set.

Love your writing, BTW...

jeanne said...

Dope slap to self...no wonder i'm so dense, since i'm underwater... ha ha, now i get the joke!

Thanks for the compliment about the writing! It's waaayy more fun writing about running than actually running!