Spring in Fall

I knew there would be setbacks in my quest to run a marathon. I knew I would not be able to keep to my schedule perfectly. This week, after having a marvelous week last week… including running my first half marathon, I was sick and missed 2 runs. I am talking missed work sick… the kind where you wake up in the stinky sick sweat.
After missing 2 runs… I felt I had to get back out there today regardless of how I felt, and I did. I have to say… I love Fall. There is something magical and melancholy about Fall. As I headed out on my run, I noticed some of the leaves had started to drop and they crunched under foot with my strides. It is sad on one hand… Fall that is. It is the ending of a cycle. What started with the joyous chorus of Spring, now ends.

My father was in ICU at the hospital recently. He took a nasty fall off a ladder that left him with a broken arm, shoulder, three ribs and a severe concusion. At times he had no idea of reality or who I was. He is in the fall of his life. Like the Fall leaves, I can see his dreams and accomplishments drying up, dieing and falling to the ground in a brilliant flash of colors, each one to become the soil for another dream, another Spring… another Summer… my Summer.

I feel very sad yet very alive each fall… and when I started out on my run this morning I was very weak and tired. My breathing was all messed up, and I could barely manage 9 minute miles. I was a sad reflection of myself a week prior. Funny how fast things can change… of one minute you are the brilliant leaf on the tree… and the next you are clogging the gutter. I knew that I had to start somewhere… that I had to at least get out there regardless of how bad I felt… and I did! It really was a sad sad run… but when I was done I could hear trumpets blaring and angels singing, and in the end… I stuck another leaf up on my tree, a present for my future Fall.