January on My Mind

Distance: 3 miles
Start time: 8:40 am
Run Duration: 32 minutes
Pace: 10.67 minutes/mile
Temperature: 85 degrees
Humidity: 60%
Location: Memorial Park, Houston

I hit the trail late this morning. I was tired, I was feeling weary and sad and still - I wanted to run. I paid for sleeping in an extra hour with an extra eight or nine degrees of heat. That's ok. I wasn't committed to more than three miles anyway, I have a 5K run on Saturday and my right knee isn't hurting, but I'm aware of it, just barely aware of it at the medial, anterior patellar boarder. I've been taking extra time with stretching - long, slow, pleasant stretches that I learned in Physical Therapy. I'm working with anterior and posterior muscle groups and taking care to include my hips in the regimen. The point is that I don't want to fall prey to my enthusiasm and suffer an overuse injury by throwing in too many miles too early. Three miles was enough today. I want to make it to January 17, 2010. That's the date for the Aramco Houston Half Marathon.

I've got three January dates in front of me now. Not only the 17th, but the 15th and the 1st. I was able to speak with someone at the Texas Teachers Retirement System offices and found out that my vested date is January 15, 2010. After that date, I'll be fully vested. I'll be able to leave my current position and have more security (although I realize the economy has pretty much tanked compared to last year) than if I left today. This is huge to me. I feel like I see a light at the end of a very dark tunnel.

On January 1 my lease is up on this apartment.

I could leave Houston at the end of January.

I could go.

Oh. My. God.

Last night I had dinner with the three people who are pretty much the reasons I would stay at this point. I told them of my rationale for leaving. It's simple. I want to run. See sentence two of this entry.

(edited to add: The fourth person who could keep me here, absent from the table was not intentionally omitted. His place is always waiting, always ready. It's simply his place to claim.)