Gumping

Tonight, I had my mp3 player loaded with music on "shuffle" instead of the podcasts I have been listening to for the last month or so. After I got back to Scheels and was talking with other run club members, two runners said they saw me running and I was "looking good!" They saw me around the 3.2 mile mark of a 5.31 mile run. There was 15 minutes in there when I felt great and don't remember my feet touching the ground. I have about 130 songs in the player on shuffle, but had an "almost perfect" section of music:

Springsteen -- Born to Run
Browne -- Running on Empty
McLean -- American Pie

I was truely "Gumping" -- that wonderful feeling where you feel like you can run forever while hearing "running on, running on empty, running on, running blind, running into the sun but I am running behind. I don't even know what I'm hoping to find. . ."

It was a great feeling and suddenly it felt like the first mile instead of the fourth, and it felt like about 558 instead of 3*. The shoes felt new, the darkness was replaced with sun, and the streets and cars were replaced with a meadow. Perhaps it was just endorphins, but it felt COOL!

Long long time ago, I remember how the music used to make me smile. . . ;)