By Joe Maurantonio

Recently, I read an interesting item about a friend and his running experience. It reminded me of the following occurance. Now, to be honest, I'm not sure if this is actually the way the conversation went. But I am sure that my friend would agree that this is the way it could have happened, and has agreed that our conversation might have happened this way. It does sound like us talking......

"Hey, man. Were you running downtown yesterday?" Darryl asked.

"Yesterday? Yeah, I think so." I was a bit tentative because I'd been doing a lot of running around and bus hopping the past few days. So, I wasn't sure if I'd actually past through the center of town the day before.

"Running from one bus, crossing a couple of blocks and then took the Valley bus?"

That sounded like one of my routes. But I suddenly was a bit suspicious as to his motives for asking me. So, I told him as much.

"Look. Yes or No? You running from one bus through the rain to another bus, with the storm from hell dancing around your Italian butt?"

I thought for a moment. Yesterday's storm. Geez! What a storm that had been. Torrential rain slapping you silly and shaking the buses. If you were fool enough to be standing outside then you were fool enough to get knocked around by the wind. Lots of people were swept onto their arses by the force of the storm. How could I forget? I'd been wearing all the wrong clothing, got out of work late and had to travel from the north of town, into downtown and then home from there...

Yet, there was something - forgive me - primal about it all. If the storm had been a little less dangerous I would have been tempted to run the distance home. As it was, I had debated just that thought but had opted to take the bus, get home earlier and see if I could start dinner for myself and the guys with whom I shared a home. Maybe, we'd even "pop" in a video (probably Red Dawn, if Mike got his way) and get in some stretching and training.

Darryl was waiting on my reply. "That sounds like me. Did I run somebody over?" I said wondering about what he might be asking after.

"Candace saw someone running across a couple of blocks, in the middle of the storm, and the person 'jumped' a bus (er, for those of you in foreign countries this means that I quickly stepped onto the bus). She wondered who it was, was sure it was one of the people that trained with us, and asked me about who it might have been. It sounded like you."

Candace worked at the same cafe-bookstore that Darryl did. (This is all happening over eight years ago. Candace was a nice person and could often be found asking Darryl about training. She seemed to be real interested in his insights, but very uninterested in joining.)

"Oh," I replied. There was more to it. But you had to wait for that. Darryl's just that way sometimes. Dramatic effect, I think it's called. He'll get to the good bits... you just have to wait for it. There was no use trying to get it out of him because he would just prolong the agony (er, I meant suspense). I waited, though somewhat impatiently.

"She said it was cool to watch the 'dark blur' running. Whoever it was seemed totally relaxed and dedicated to the run. The wind was whipping people about, but the figure just ran as if they were a part of the storm..."

"Hurnm." He had my attention. But I'm sure that he noticed my smile. I hadn't meant it to be there but it was sort of funny having my running described to me in this manner. Like I was the god Hermes or comic book character Flash.

"And Candace thought that the blur, with its lean figure, clothes and hair whipping about, looked like something out of Roman myth." Which made Darryl smile and laugh, too.

"Oh, that was me. Definitely me." I said, head swelling.

"What were you doing?" He asked.

"Huh?" I was runnning, I thought. "What do you mean?"

"What were you thinking about when you were running? What was going through your head as you ran through the storm?"

Humph. Darryl's like that. Exactly. He makes you think about things that you would never normally think about. But that perhaps you should be thinking about. He'd say he asks the obvious questions, but don't let that fool you. These questions are always obvious to Darryl. Which is one of the reasons that people like him so much. Not because he's good looking or anything. [Because you're not, Darryl. Those girls were never checking you out. They were looking at me. And one day you'll finally admit it to yourself. Heh, heh.] NOW, I was thinking about the storm, my run and the thoughts and feelings that were going through my head.

"Well, the storm was just whipping me about and I was getting soaked. You know, when I first got outside of work and stepped into the wind it was crazy. But sort of refreshing, too. It woke me up a bit. I was both scared and excited."

Darryl nodded, letting me tell the whole story, in my time, in my way.

"Then I realized that I had to take the bus so I crossed the first few steps and was nearly knocked onto my butt. My co-worker, Judy, got knocked down so I helped her up. That's when I was sure that I needed to pay attention to my balance and keep focused on my direction. At first, running was difficult. So, I employed a bit of angling and imagination. I angled myself into the crosswinds and thought of myself as a sailboat's sail, kept an even breathing pattern and saw the location I was running to as if I was in a tunnel running toward the light at its end. A part of me was aware that I was just a small piece of the storm... that nature, herself, would help me get to where I was going. If I just let Her. It was as if she had her hand on my back and was pushing me to go-go-go! And as Candace said, I was a blur. I did the same when I got off the first bus and ran to the second."

"Cool story. Sounds like you were just trying to be a part of everything. You, the rain and the wild winds. The barbarian in you showing through." He continued smiling. And I looked at him and thought that was another bit to add to my training. Something more to think about.

Before this incident, running was something I tolerated. It was probably due to the fact that I wasn't really very fast or quick as a kid. I was always one of the kids getting caught early in a game of hide-and-seek. So, mostly I grew up disliking running, did poorly at it and was always having a difficult time with it. But as my training progressed running was a part of the curriculum and for the most part my early days were spent surviving them. I ran because it was a part of the "program", because it made me a bit healthier and because it helped me develop my breathing skills. But I can't say that I really enjoyed these early experiences.

It's odd how we live each day trying to create more and more "sanity" about us... and it takes a simple storm to remind us that we are more than simple flesh and blood. So much more. It's enlightening too. That incident gave me a lot of confidence about my running and even got me to go out running more often.