Running. With Tug-o-McWhopper.

Posted on by Live & Learn

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It’s 4:26 am. Hump Day.

The scale works, with its condescending blink-blink-blink.
Down B*tch. Down.
It flashes Up.
Up 8 lbs since the last running post over a month ago.
Wow.

I turn to the morning papers.  Headline: Burger King has reached out to McDonald’s with a 1-day cease-fire offer to combine the Whopper with the Big Mac to create the McWhopper. Wow.

I shift uncomfortably on the couch.

Don’t care? Don’t want to? Too hot?
Where’s the disgust? The fury?
Riding Apathy Road here.
Wow.

I turn back to the morning blog post readings.
John O’Donohue in “Before The Beginning” explains:

Unknown to us, there are moments
When crevices we cannot see open
For time to come alive with beginning.

And, I Begin.
A beautiful morning.
62° F. Wind WNW at 8 mph.

It’s Zwicky’s ‘end of summer’ where the ‘heart talks to itself, a thin stream braiding over a lip of rock’.

It’s still, but for the breeze at my back, and my breath.
The sky sparkles with the Big Dipper, the Little Dipper and the North Star.
Nature softens.

But, the interlude is brief.
The body heaves itself around the track.
Oxygen is thin.
Groins groan.
Legs are anvils.
Lift them up and down. Almost home.

And on queue, as I round the corner on the home stretch, a long uphill climb, the Gremlin in my music player randomly fires-up Todd Rundgren’s “Bang the Drums all Day“:

I don’t want to work
I want to bang on the drum all day
I don’t want to play
I just want to bang on the drum all day…
I bang on that thing ’til I got blisters on my hand

And I say: PERFECT.

Miles: 5.25 miles

Time Check: Nap Time.

Notes:

35 thoughts on “Running. With Tug-o-McWhopper.”

  1. Inspiration can come from the weirdest places. And the things that usually inspire can leave us smacking our lips with cynical attitude. I’ve just decided it’s magic that makes us get up and out.

    2. Joseph Campbell asserts that once the hero commits to his quest, whether consciously or unconsciously, then magical helpers arrive to point the way.

      ~ Katrina Kenison, Magical Journey, An Apprenticeship in Contentment

  5. McWhopper? NOOOO!!! Please say it ain’t so!
    Those 3 lines by John O’Dononue? Oh how I envy having thought of that…lovely and perfect.
    You and your 5.25 miles? Awesome. You beat the tug.
    Nap? even more awesome.

  6. Also and interesting image…at the starting line of the day…going forward or is something going to shadow a person and hold them back all day… A person has a choice…great that you where out in front and finished with 5 and 1/4 miles a good start to gliding through your day….

  7. Sometimes, the motivation is hard to arrive, but you have to admit..once you’ve completed the effort, you always feel better for it. Just do it ! (Sorry, Nike ). But, then again..wouldn’t we all rather just bang that drum all day? ☺

  8. It just takes one step to walk a thousand miles ha! Well done, you did it, and you can do it again. I am motivated to exercise by how I feel after. I always feel good and am glad I made the effort, even if it requires a nap. zzzzzzzz

  9. I’ve disappeared in that time crevice, at times, and time opens back to the time I ran into with and through the pain of 5 miles and more. And then I napped loud and hard. I loved that. Now my time is creviced back to walks, naps take too much time, and McWhoppers are for a time long past.

  10. See, you can do it. Now you just need to change the schedule from once a month to once a week, and then…you know what’s on the schedule gets done, right? Enjoyed running along.

    1. That’s it Helen. That’s it. Should be no problem with this solution. It’s no wonder that you achieved fame in the world of international consultancy. Where were you 10-15 years ago when I really needed you. It would have saved me so much suffering!

      1. Laughing. Here we are trying to change the subject. My assessment is that you had your stuff pretty much all figured out by that time.

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