JJSB Rundate 15202: Happy Birthday JJSB RunDate & Cursing The Sun

Okay, first things first.  JJSB's RunDate turned 1 year old on Friday, 7/12!
Go Ahead.  Wish the blog happy birthday.  Well, I'm waiting...

Finally!

Thank you!

It's hard to believe I started this blog an entire year ago.  I thank those of you who have read and/or commented.  This blog has been a valuable part of inspiring me over the past 12 months.  Especially when so many other events in my life were working to steal that inspiration.

Now, enough of that.  Onward.

Anyone who runs in Kansas City, knows that running here during the summer months involves heat and humidity and a lot of it.  The best way to deal with these less than ideal running conditions is to run early in the morning (best choice) or run late in the evening (second best choice).  Also, as I've said before, hydration and slowing your pace are key to preventing your run from being relative torture or  possibly even leading to heat exhaustion.  For myself, I find it best to prehydrate, slow the pace way down, keep the run to 60 minutes or less and contemplate how much faster I  will be when fall arrives and the temps drop down into the 50's.  Since I hate getting up early to run, I choose to run in the evening, preferably after the sun has descended below the horizon.  I forget about my pace, start off very slowly and insert strategic walk breaks throughout the run.  Since we have had a lot (and I mean A LOT) of rain this year, there have been several days during which I head out to run when it is cloudy, only to get a mile or two into the run and have the clouds dissipate and the sun blast down mercilessly upon me.  And, as we all know, when the summer sun comes out after a rain, everything is going to be exponentially more hot and sticky. 

So, I was out on one of these "rainy turned to hot and sticky" runs a few weeks ago and I found myself, once again, doing something I do when I've reached a heightened point of fatigue but must continue.  I begin to curse the sun in all of its heinous radiance.  And when I say cursing, I mean, literally cursing the sun.  I won't tell you the exact words I direct at that inanimate, fiery sphere of gas, but suffice to say, I clearly communicate my distaste using quite "colorful" language.  Only, on this particular run, I started to question myself.  Why am I so mad at the sun?  (Besides me being crazy). Should I be mad at the sun?  After all, the sun is the sun.  It does what it does.  And it doesn't care who it does it to.  Furthermore, was the sun really doing something to me?  Or was the sun actually doing something for me?  (Yeah, I know.  I get into some pretty odd train of thoughts, especially when I'm running).  It occurred to me that, rather than cursing the sun, I should be praising it.  The sun was making me stronger.  The sun was conditioning me to have more endurance.  The sun was reminding me of that old Nietzscheism, "what does not kill me, makes me stronger."

Once again, as with many things in life, perspective is everything.  When we are confronted with circumstances that are less (sometimes FAR less) than ideal, it's important to be able to slow down our racing minds and reflect on the situation.  Sometimes, it's hard to see the potential positives that can come from pain, discomfort, sadness or loss.  I'm definitely not going to sit here and say that it's as simple as processing things mentally and everything will become clear in every situation.  But I do think that we often react quite reflexively to things we don't like without even considering what we might be gaining.  So, the next time that you find yourself facing difficult circumstances, try to stop and spend some time reflecting.  Maybe there are some positives.

As I mentioned  in my previous post, for the next 20 posts, I'll be listing a "Song of the Run" for my current 20 favorite bands.  And I'm not just grabbing songs out of the air for this, lest anyone think I'm "cheating".  When I head out to a run, I pick one of my favorites, put their entire library on shuffle and pick the "Song of the Run" from what I hear.  The bands are in no particular order of likedom.  Just what I am in the mood for when I step out the door.

So, on my most recent run, I chose a band that I discovered a decade ago when I signed up for "emusic" which is an online music subscription store.  Although I only kept the subscription for a few months, I discovered, and caught up on, a lot of bands I still love today.
One of the first albums that I downloaded was Silent Alarm by Bloc Party and I was blown away.  Do you have those bands you listen to and you love every song?  Well, Bloc Party is one of those for me.

So, here is the most recent "Song of the Run," from Bloc Party's most latest release Four:

"It was the truth
That fell from these lips
It blinded us
And then the darkness left"