There's a lot I can Learn from Tiger

Unlike Tiger Woods my parents screwed me genetically.

Let me be more specific. My parents screwed me genetically in terms of running.  They threw me a solid with intelligence, perseverance, work ethic and general strength (I believe much of that strength comes through the beauty of evolution and being evolved from generations of hard-working farmers). These "farmer" genes help on the bike, big legs never hurt pushing that big gear up a hill. But as for things like, oh, let's say, running I got screwed. It seems no matter how much or often I run it's always the same. Ten minute, give or take some seconds, pace. Regardless. Ten minute miles. Ten fucking minute miles.

There comes a time during each of my runs, whether long or short, where I get discouraged and want to give up, stop running, walk back and throw in the proverbial towel. I give those thoughts a good five or ten minutes in my head and decide to continue on. Why? I don't know. Maybe it's the stubborn-as-hell gene my parents passed my way.

Each day I head out with positive thoughts cycling through my head, positive images of myself running just a few seconds faster, positive goals to meet-then I get passed by the 65 year-old lady who appears to be running with a major hitch in her giddy-up. Positive thoughts are gone. Those thoughts are then replaced with anger, disappointment and, I guess, motivation. The second half of my run is fueled by fury, indignation and the desire to best my last run by at least one second. In the end more often than not I find I didn't best anything, but I finished what I set out to do. Finishing doesn't change the fact that I want to be faster, that I want to pass people out on my runs, I want to know I can finish that half marathon in two hours or less. The more I think about it the worse I make myself feel.

In Tiger's poorly delivered and, quite frankly, pointless speech Friday he said, "Buddhism teaches that a craving for things outside ourselves causes an unhappy and pointless search for security." While I'm no Buddhist, nor do I have an urge to become one, there is a lot I can take from that one thing. On my next run I will try to repeat that to myself and just enjoy being outside, be thankful that I can run at all and remember that it can always be worse, I could be running 11 minutes miles.

Until then, I got a pedicure to try and ease the frustration.  Dutch didn't get one, he just likes to lick my toes when I'm at the kitchen island.