Exploratory Mud Run / Getting lost

Yesterday I felt nauseous so I stayed home from school.  I decided to take a 1 mile walk since it was overcast and the weather reports said: no rain. I had an amphipod 12oz handheld bottle and 1 GU packet.  A lot of power walking, 900 ft elevation, in the beginning and on the flat parts I tried to jog.  My Brooks Cascadia 5’s were troopers but there is no beating the soft mud that clings to shoes after a fresh rain pour.  I decided to jog down a few downhills.  The mud clumped to my shoes amazing grip so I felt I was running in cowboy boots.  I had to stop ever 100 yards or so to remove the clumps since I could feel my ankles rolling.  I decided that I needed to find a paved road ASAP and get back to my car because it started sprinkling.  I did not want to go backwards because the downhill would be trouble in the rain and rivers of mud were not in the forecast.  I found a single track that seemed to lead down and towards a street, it did.  I was about 2/3 done with the single track and “make it rain.”  I was cruising on the single track like a champ, I felt amazing, until it popped me out onto a street significantly off course.  I being the brilliant man I am was not wearing classes or contacts.  I read the street sign incorrectly and in a rush to try and keep moving out of the rain I ran away from my car’s direction, smooth.  So discovering my error I decided to just suck it up and do as easy a run as possible.  I was wearing running shorts, Dri-fit shirt, hat and a windbreaker.  I ran downhill because my calves were beating on me.  I stopped at McDonald’s to fill up my water bottle and kept moving.  Got to the beach and then back around a familiar loop.  I got a ride back to my car afterwards.  I felt good, that second wind stuff is a lie; you get at least three or four.  Towards the end of the run I did feel stronger.  Something inside clicks when you are shivering, wet and miserable.  You remember that you picked this goal, you put yourself there, you took the step through the door into the unknown.  Regardless if it is good or bad its yours, own it.  It is refreshing and invigorating to make those circumstances your own because you accept them and get to work instead of breaking. 

“If you put a limit on everything you do, physically or anything else. It will spread into your work and into your life.  There are no limits.  There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them.” -Bruce Lee