Sauna

Central Park has turned into a rainforest. Somehow, I don't mind it so much when I am running. At least I didn't today. I spent half of my day in what a friend of mine called the deepest sacs of bureaucracy hell. Frustrating as hell, trying to correct mistakes made by other people, nobody wanting to take the responsibility for them, everybody passing me on to the next person. Finally I decided that nothing was going to be solved over the phone. I went to the office and told them I wasn't leaving until they gave me what I needed and I just stood there until they handed me the letter I had to send. Then a quick trip to FedEx and it was done and done. Anyway, sometimes you just have to put your foot down and take things into your own hands instead of worrying about other people doing their jobs right (which they often don't because let's face it, most people don't really care). Nevertheless, it was stressful.

So here is my theory: stress is not something recently invented in our crazy 21st century lives. Stress hormones were a very important survival tool for our ancestors, they most likely conferred an advantage when it came to running away from or fighting scary things. These days though, chronic stress does a lot more harm than there are advantages to acute production of those hormones that get the body ready to fight or flight. But here is the good thing: after a stressful day, I always want to run really badly and it usually feels awesome. Even if it's 95F outside.

In fact, I noticed that as I was running a quick loop around the reservoir, I was passing guys who looked much stronger than me. Then I started paying attention to people passing me. But there was nobody. Today, I was possibly the fastest person running around the reservoir. Well, at least during those 13 minutes. And at that part of the loop. All the smart people must have stayed home in their air-conditioned apartments.

I kept thinking about the positive things about the craziness I was doing. There are some, really. Like when you're running, you're generating more wind so it feels cooler on your skin - even though you're overheating from the inside. Then, the sweating. When I am in my street clothes, I hate hate hate sweating. Worry about the stains, smell, carry a deodorant with me everywhere, sometimes even a spare shirt. And then biking to work takes this to a whole other level. However, in my running clothes, it feel so natural to sweat. It cools me down. And call me crazy, but I do find skin glistening with sweat somewhat sexy. On a fit body, of course. And it shows how hard I am working.

Then there are the bugs. Once it gets dark, they swarm near the lights. You can't really see them until you are in the swarm. And then it's too late! I think I had a good protein-rich meal while running tonight. Ugh. Gross. And then the weird competitive guy. I never considered NYC runners to be super competitive when training. Everybody just does his and her own thing. People don't get bothered by others. That's NYC. Towards the end of my run, I slowed down quite a bit, so when I got to the finish, I wanted to push it a bit. So I started speeding up and as I was about to pass this guy who was running in front of me for a few minutes, as soon as he saw me from the corner of his eye, he started speeding up. So obvious. It happened 3 more times until I turned off to exit the park. So did he. And he continued to look over his shoulder and speed up every time I got too close. When I got to the street, I stopped at the red light. He kept running and looked several times to see where I was. Now, I couldn't tell if he was just too much of a guy to be passed by a girl, or if he kept turning around because he thought I was cute (most likely not, considering the state I was in), but I was laughing by the time he turned off onto a side street. All in all, a very good run. The cold shower after felt even better.