A cup of coffee and some deep insight as to why I run.

Friday, August 09, 2013 · Mike Davis

Good morning and thanks for having coffee with me! Let me start off by saying: “Thanks be to God it’s Friday!” Why do I run you ask? Okay, you really didn’t ask but I am going to let you in on my true motivation for running. Running allows me a mental break from the daily grind and affords me an opportunity to meditate in a way that works for me. Where’s some can sit and meditate, I can’t sit for more than a few minutes, so by moving my feet I can relax my mind and be still. Running also helps me to stay fit and the results always impress the doctor during my annual physical. Low blood pressure, nice resting heart rate, great cholesterol and etc… Weight training and weights make a difference! Through running I have made some fantastic friends that share the same crazy love of lacing up the Asics and traipsing through near blizzard conditions. No better way to bond with someone than to commiserate together during a run in the dead of winter. While all of those are on my list of reason I run, the real reason is best explained by last night’s events. After getting home from physical therapy, we had dinner outside on the deck. I was inside cleaning up and thinking about getting to bed early only to be told by my wife that our neighbors wanted us to go out for a chocolate chip calzone. Oh my goodness, how my plans changed in a blink of the eye. We have become very good friends with this young couple and the fact that all four of us enjoy a glass of wine and deserts has more than made up for our differences in age. A problem my wife and I both have is that we are not good a saying no, so when asked to do something like go out for desert, we usually put up no resistance. Now it would be easy to blame our inability to say no entirely on why we went out, but to be fare; deserts are my biggest weakness, so saying yes was somewhat easy for me. Despite being tired, off we went to Blue Latitudes a place we frequent because it’s one of my wife’s favorites. But last night it was all about this huge contraption that they call a chocolate chip calzone with a side of vanilla ice cream. Initially we all ordered a glass of wine and our Allyssa ordered some nachos (her dinner). We sipped on our wine and when the nachos came we ordered 2 calzones for each pair to share. These things are huge flaky pastries stuffed with some type of sweet filling and chocolate chips melted in and as I said it’s accompanied with a scoop of vanilla ice cream with more melted chocolate chips. Sweet would not begin to describe this thing! Well, we enjoyed our sinful desert as well as good conversation and gave not thought to how many calories we were consuming. Why do I run? Well if you managed to read everything to this point you can probably guess; I run so I can eat the sinful things that I enjoy! Sweets have always been my weakness and I often tell people; “If there were no deserts, I would weigh 120 pounds.” Despite the fact that I do workout 5 to 6 days a week I still try to limit my deserts, but thankfully my working out does allow me to enjoy deserts on a regular basis (regular is subjective). Our young neighbors both are quite active as well so we all understand the concept of “treating ourselves” quite well. My wife and I enjoy the friendship we have with our neighbors and though it’s not based on deserts, it does make it fun. All the reasons I mentioned earlier about why I run are super important to me, but I will never deny that running and strength training allows me to somewhat enjoy a guilt free desert. Well my coffee cup is empty and the calzone is sitting in my stomach waiting to be burned off. Have a great Friday and enjoy that cup of coffee! mike