Bored to death

As a kid, when I was (often) intimidated by a new challenge, my mom would remind me that we sometimes (and I often) feel that way before conquering and moving on to the next thing. Something along the lines of "scared to death, worked to death, bored to death." And it's all supposed to happen in like twenty minutes, or at least faster than you think.

I've hit bored to death. Beautiful weather, a fun playlist, a new route, and still, my reaction to having to run 14 miles on Saturday was annoyance. Two and a half hours of ugh, not again!

I was supposed to run to the Queensboro Bridge, do four round trips of the bridge and head back to the park. I made it two back-and-forths and left. It was loud and the exhaust and kicked up gravel dust stung my eyes and made me want to close off my ears, eyes, nose and mouth.  As much a I am bored almost to tears running around the park these days, I headed back to lessen the impact of the miles on my joints and perhaps avoid getting the black lung. A big lap on the dirt, and I headed home at 13 miles. I had some tightness in my shin that I really did not want to aggravate.

The good part of all of this is that my only "long" run left is next Saturday and is just 8 miles, which shall be so very sweet. I get bored when work comes without a challenge, which means I've come quite a long way in building up endurance. The next new challenge to excite me, challenge me, and, yes, scare me, is in exactly two weeks, and I will have all the pent up antsyness and craving of the newness of experience to fuel me from from my comfort zone to what I've proven I can do, plus a few miles more.