The sun crashes through the horizon
The morning sky is blue and cloudless
Shoes are double knotted, iPod is on
and I stretch; stretch for success!

Start/Stop on the watch is GO!
Feet pound the pavement as I am strong.
I settle in, get in the zone, find my flow.
I stay in shadows. They are cool and long.

A saying from my past comes to mind:
There are no shortcuts
There are no secrets
You just have to run.

So I run the open road as you will find
I will not quit
I will not fall
But run I will,

For me, myself and I
For freedom
For health
I am running to run!

**********

I kind of suck at poems, but that's what came to mind this morning as I completed my first "long" run in training for a marathon. It was only 5 miles. I've done much longer. I'm in the third week of training and up until this weekend I've postponed going long because of other events (travel, wedding, etc.). So let it begin. The mileage will increase one mile each week up until I'm doing some seriously ridiculous distances. Then it pulls back into cross training and resting and going even further to stupid distances. Time will tell from here whether my knees, legs, kidneys can take it. I'm convinced going slow with it will work and I should be fine.

So it is now with a smile on my face, I'm off to the beach to work on my footwork on the longboard!