RUNNING WITH HEART

P’tum, p’tum.

I needed to feel my feet thumping down on the earth today, and my heart thudding up and down in my chest.  And to do some zigzagging, and listen to the crows.  To see the magpie bobbing over the gravestone, and hear the robin’s invite to the woodland path.

Oh my god, the cat! As I sit down to write, she comes sliding full tilt into the kitchen on mission mouse murder. There is blood on the floor. Fucking hell. 

Run mousey, run! Let me distract this murderous black and white beast and run for your life.  I wonder if mine and mousey’s mornings aren’t turning out to be too different.

No, that would be a dramatic comparison.  Nothing and no one was chasing me, no blood was drawn.  P’tum, p’tum.  We probably just experienced a little something of our own hearts.

A funny choice really, for me to write about running.  I am not that into it, and don’t do it too often.  It’s just two of these light May mornings have beckoned the old lace-ups out of hiding, and drawn me to stomp through the new neighbourhood, sussing out the parks and streets of Easton through pursed lips and salty sweat.

It’s fair to say I do it for the whole sensory experience, not just the exercise checklist.  

The gauntlet style pavements awash with discarded furniture, and tyres, as piles of painted metal try hard not to lose a mirror.  To greet my body with the morning Sun.  To see the trees and paths I’ve not crossed before. To breathe in the outdoors, and listen to it, even if that includes the sound of sirens and reversing lorries.  

I do it for the slight chill that comes over me afterwards, and the absolute joy of a rhubarb and raspberry hot steamy shower, and the lingering steam in the bathroom.  I do it for the smugness, the following day’s sore legs, and to feel happy hormones take up residence for the day.  And I do it, of course, for my heart.

I really did notice her pummeling up and down in my chest today.  Was it perhaps some latent power being aroused, Tarzan stylie, ah ah ah ah ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?  Is my courage being summoned for some new adventure? What is in there exactly? My heart, that is…