I need to run (and in the rain too)

Come Friday, my legs were as jumpy as anything and I was so looking forward to what has become a regular weekly run with a local friend, who I met two years ago while out running. He is currently working out in Germiston and I'm half-way between his home and work. So, on Friday evenings he stops here for a run on his way home from work. I've been mixing it up each week to take him on a variety of my favourite routes through my 'hood.

So, we're talking on Friday during the run and we're pondering how easy it is to lose the plot. My annual birthday run thing reminds me how relatively easy it is to squeeze in a 30-minute run, even when you're crazy busy. But without the commitment to something like '37 Days of Running' the wheels can fall off and me-myself-I gets pushed aside for other tasks.

"Bugger it," I told him. "I should be the most important thing in my life. My health. My fitness. How does it happen that two or three or *gasp* four days pass and I haven't been out for a run?"

I get jumpy, I feel like hell, I'm short-fused...

"If I've been going to bed at 2am most nights, what difference really does it make if I get out for a 30 minute run and end up going to bed at 02h30 instead?" I added.

I don't just want to run, I NEED TO RUN. Or walk. Or anything.

Improving on my track record from the past few weeks, I've had three runs in four days and I'm feeling more like myself again.

This evening I ducked out for a quick run, aiming to fit my run into the eye of the storm, so to speak. The glorious summer highveld thunderstorms have arrived and as I stepped out I could see dark clouds building again in the South.

Actually, I was also hoping to get caught in the rain. I delight in running in seriously pouring rain and having the freshness and clarity and energy and bounce that comes from running in a heavy storm. While I was kicking through puddles and streams gushing roadside, cars were struggling with fogged windscreens and with their wipers going like mad. I felt like a storm queen.

I'm hoping that I'm a bit more on track now, after losing my way for a bit. Fortunately, I don't lose my way for too long. Jumpy legs and a certain crankiness remind me that running is my calm in any storm.