Thursday, January 1, 2015

The Rain, The Park, and Nick Rhodes

About three and a half years ago I had a major invasive surgery which I thought I could "bounce back" from and be back to my old self in no time.  I did try to get back to my old self, running again, entering races, doing bootcamps, but for whatever reason, my body was just not happy and I felt worse, not better.  For the past year I have just left myself in limbo, not sure what I should or could do.  I felt sad that my half-marathoning and hill running days might be over, but there's nothing like the dawn of a new year to realize that life goes on and it's time to make the best of it.

As I prepared for bed last night and laid out my running clothes for my planned "resolution run" this morning, I heard a voice in my head as I brushed my teeth:  "Maybe you should just walk."  What!?!  That was not the plan!  However, as I stepped back and thought logically (as I always do), I realized that the cons to running (knee pain, abdominal pain, feeling sick the rest of the day) far outweighed the pros (a few extra calories burned).  And so I set out on my walk this morning, 6:30 am, in a world of quiet.

That is, until I approached a house around the corner and heard voices.  Loud voices.  As I passed the open garage I saw a guy holding a beer, talking to another guy, the smell of cigarette smoke strong and flowing out of the garage into the wind.  Wow - happy new year!  I wonder if they knew what time it was.  It reminded me of the time we had a backyard fire when I was a kid, and of course the entire neighbourhood showed up.  When I woke up the next morning, two of the neighbourhood guys were still sitting around the fire.  I guess some things never change!

I continued on, thinking about a lot of things (a nice long walk is great for reflection), and I thought about the Duran Duran concert I had watched last night, which in all honestly, wasn't very good (too much new crap and not enough old stuff - they didn't even do Union of the Snake or New Moon on Monday!).  I watched as Nick Rhodes stood among the keyboards and computers, likely running tracks as he played a few notes, and I chuckled as I walked:  I'm Nick Rhodes!  Last week at church I took my first crack at running our tracks from the computer, while trying to hold transitions and also playing lead piano lines.  Exhausting, for sure, but so much fun!  As the church grows (rumblings of a fourth service continue to bubble through the masses), the need for good technology also grows, and what a great time to be getting involved!

I arrived back home after 48 minutes of pondering, hip flexors tight and my cheeks a little cold, but I don't feel sick and my body seems happy.  I think I'm going to stretch a bit and have a chai tea latte from the new Tassimo machine I bought for Scott this Christmas.

Happy New Year 2015 - I think you are going to be fun!