The thrilling thrill of an early morning run

As I scratch through my wildly-wet low hair after my much-enjoyed shower, I sit before my PC, right in the way of the vent, my body sitting through a pleasurable “vooo” of air, I look ahead at today with a confident feeling of “Hi Tuesday, I got ya!”

I had just had it the way I always imagined. Almost every morning for the past 2–3 months I run for 20–30 minutes and lately I have added push-ups and some bit of stretch and squatting before or after. What I have always wanted to do was get back home in the pool of sweat and run directly into the bathroom. I always knew the feeling of cold water meeting fresh running sweat would be awesome, but taking some immediate rest in the form of walking up and down the verandah and thinking through the day’s work and the week’s goal “will not let me shine”.

This morning went the way of the ideal script. I couldn’t wait as I unlaced my canvas and got right under the shower and how so heavenly was it. The calm that followed was out of this world and then I experienced what I never forethought. As I did my usual scrapping off water on my body with my fingers (something that began in the University days of having misplaced your towels and improvising), I discovered to a further delight the warmth of my body. It appeared then that the sweat had always covered up and although I always felt the heat after a run, it was never this real. This is my actual body, after a bath, clean of dirt and all, very warm and I could literally feel my blood running. I have not done any research to ascertain what exactly it was but it appears the heat was from my blood rushing and running hot due to the exercise.

I know you probably feel this is a no-brainer but really I never understood it this way and I am more and more fired up to do this every morning. As I pondered on the “discovery”, I got the insight that this is about putting my body and mind on top speed and ready for the day’s real-life race. And yes, from the point of view of getting better than yesterday and breaking our limits, race aptly fits for what my daily work looks like and nothing can be more thrilling than this for a start.

I am downing a cup of water right now (room temperature), typing this to share my experience with you and preparing for a client meeting by 11 am. After some 30 push-ups and a great morning run, I am heading straight to the client’s office (to be joined in by a colleague), to give her a big smile like DeRock, shake hands with all vitality and get onto a (thrilling) business conversation.

Because…, I ran and it was a great thrill.