Brian’s fitness journal after a brain stroke
This morning began with heavy rain tapping against the windows.
Instead of rushing outside, I reached for my weather app. According to the forecast, the rain should ease in about an hour. That sounded like a perfectly reasonable excuse to go back to sleep. So, I reset my alarm and happily returned to bed.
When I woke again, the house was quiet. The rain had stopped, or so I thought. I got dressed, laced up my running shoes, and headed out. Nashville’s weather has been a little unusual this year.
Normally, we receive plenty of rain from early spring into early summer, but this year’s rainy season seemed to arrive later than expected. June finally brought more regular rain, and even July has been filled with thunderstorms.
Earlier that morning, my wife had already gone for her run. She looked outside, decided the weather seemed good enough, and headed out with optimism. She came home completely soaked. Apparently, the weather had other plans.
I usually don’t let a little rain stop me either. When I started my run, the rain was still falling, but only lightly. I accepted that I would probably end up wet and settled into my normal pace.
Being soaked has never bothered me very much. Around the halfway point, however, the rain suddenly became much heavier. I briefly debated whether to turn around or keep going.
Every runner has that conversation with themselves.
“It’s only rain.”
“Maybe it will pass.”
“You’re already wet anyway.”
Then nature cast the deciding vote. A loud crack of thunder echoed across the sky. That ended the discussion immediately. Rain is merely inconvenient. Lightning is persuasive. I turned around and headed home. I didn’t complete my planned five kilometers, but I did manage to get part of the run finished before the weather took over.
Discipline is..
Sometimes we imagine discipline means refusing to stop. I think discipline also includes knowing when conditions have changed enough that continuing no longer makes sense. There will always be another morning to run. There doesn’t need to be another opportunity to test whether lightning can run faster than I can. I have no interest in discovering the answer to that question.