and even when he sleeps

i left mommy and the baby this morning at 8:30 to get some breakfast (they stopped giving dads the gift certificate dollars for the hospital cafe) and coffee. i parked downtown across from the governor's cup and started walking over to great harvest. it had been forty-eight hours since my last run. a half block away from the street, the crosswalk had just turned green. i thought that if i ran, i would be able to make it easy. i think i was a bit inspired by the book i'm reading, the perfect mile. one of the main characters got his start running by just running wherever he went instead of walking. i broke into a light, smooth, easy stride.

at that point my mind shot back to a very vivid dream i had last night in the midst of broken sleep between dirty diapers and baby cries.

i have had many dreams about running since i've started getting serious about it. mainly dreams about races. either pre-race (where everything goes wrong) or during the race (where i somehow miss a turn on the course and become disqualified). this was my first running dream where i am simply on a training run.

it's a large vacant field. no vegetation, no building, a few people walking around watching me run. there are rolling hills with one end of the field higher than the other, a slow gradual incline. i start by running towards this incline. and i am running fast. faster than i should be on terrain this steep. fast like my strides, fast like my 400 meter runs. air is rushing at my face, not from wind, it is a calm day, but from my pace.

this is when i notice that i'm barefoot. and this field is unlike anything i have ever seen before. it is soft and spongy. similar to a track. almost like clay. but much softer and not springy. it's the perfect surface to run without shoes on. so you feel one with your running, nothing artificial in the way.

i'm now at the top of field. i turn a wide turn and proceed down. my fast tempo becomes even faster and i'm rolling off of the little hills. from one i catch a little bit of air. i decide to take advantage of this phenomenon, increase speed even faster, and explode from the crest of the next hill. i shoot in the air. i'm not flying though. it's more of a continuation of my run. my legs are still moving. i look down at my wrist to check my pace on my garmin.

this is how i see my running.