King of the Road

I have to confess – it is quite rare that I experience sudden explosions of energy and power as I happened to discover this morning.  Most of the time, the exhausting weekly schedule takes such a taxing toll that the process of awakening never really ends… Not so this morning.  Somehow, somewhere, on some cosmic level, the proper particles collided and produced circumstances which led to an unexpected spike in energy levels.   If you are into outdoor exercises – and chances are you are not – you can surely relate, as you almost always know right away whether or not you have it in your gas tank on any given morning.

With my energy tank clearly signaling “full” this morning, I truly felt empowered and nothing, I mean nothing at all, seemed to be able to change that.  Not sudden intentional increases in speed, not my loud singing (more like screaming) to the tunes of Metallica blasting from my iPhone – nothing mattered!  Not an ounce of tiredness in my body, no sign of fatigue anywhere!  Why can’t I have this every single time out there!!!

And just as the incredible level of energy enveloped my entire being, I spread my hands out and looked upward to the skies– I am the king of the road!!  Nothing else matters, the pinnacle is here!  Who or what can possibly stop this ride!

Famous last words…

It first appeared as a little dot on the horizon, nothing more than a little speck of light.  As the dot grew larger, however, I realized that it was actually fast approaching me and that it was no dot at all.  The light turned out to be a truck or a bus or something that was just as big as it was fast!  Soon the high beams were glaring right into my face, seemingly getting close enough to touch!  Ironically, the very lyrics blasting into my ears at the moment were: “… then it comes to be that the soothing light at the end of your tunnel… is just a freight train coming your way!”

Could it have been a mere coincidence?  Or just a sign from above?  We will never know for sure, but I have to tell you – the timing couldn’t have been any worse.  I was so hyped up on my own overwhelming energy levels, with adrenaline nearly bursting out of my eye sockets, and with those lyrics pushing me forward – for some brief insane moment I literally thought I was man-enough to keep running at the approaching truck!  I am serious, the exact lightning-like thoughts flashing across my mind were: “Come on, you son of a gun, this is my road!  You think you can run me off my road!?!!”

Surprisingly enough, the trucker did not blink and simply continued on his way toward me, completely unmoved by my heroics… or maybe he just didn’t even see me?  But for a very brief moment, I thought I saw a look of sheer terror on the trucker’s face, or maybe it was just a reflection of my own insanity staring right back at me… Either way, I am sorry to report that I blinked first and ended up swerving off the dangerous path.  Somehow the whole experience had actually managed to zap the remaining bits of energy out of me, the runner’s high was over with; luckily enough I wasn’t far from the home base.

Apparently, he who fights and runs away, lives to run another day…. or something to that effect!  And so with that in mind, I

Keep on running!