Fuel For Your Fire

I cannot tell you happy I am to see the sun this morning. According to the weather reports, we have had rain every day for the past 21 days. 21 days. Imagine that. Gray skies, dark clouds, rain, every day for three weeks. It does make you a little crazy. But this morning, sweet, sweet sun and blue skies. I can forget that it supposed to go away tomorrow and just soak it up today.

Life can be like that, can’t it? One piece of bad news after another, one setback after another, until you think that there may never be blue sky again. I’ve felt a bit like that in the past few weeks. This lingering crap in my chest started with the rain, and like the rain, it has stuck around. Doubts about the upcoming marathon have settled in with it. My relay blogging has been particularly frustrating. I’m forgetting dates and times of family obligations. Crazy. I’m tempted to crawl into bed and never leave.

But a great song from John Nemeth, a blues singer from Boise, Idaho of all places, helps me pick myself up and dust myself off. ”If you’ve run across some bad luck,” he tells us in the opening to the song, “just build yourself a little fire…and just burn out that pain.” I love to listen to this song as I run, thinking about all the pain that goes in to training for a race, and then I let it fuel me to the finish.

Maybe you’ve been injured or struggling to find the time to run. Maybe your splits are slow or your body is tired, maybe the rain won’t stop or the sun won’t ease up. We all hit rough patches; it is what we do in them that matters. I’m going to be building myself a little fire and using it to fuel my future. What about you?