Running Point A to Point B

I'm back to thinking about running, which often inspires me to write. I have a boy who is running cross-country now and he really enjoys it. Recently, though, I asked what about running cross-country does he enjoy? He's in middle school, so perhaps my question is just too lofty for him to have a response, because he simply responded, "I don't know." So, naturally, I worked on responding to the question and it wasn't as hard. It's free, it's flowing, you can go fast, you can go far, it's an accomplishment. There's something to be said for getting up in the morning to face another workday where your time is not yours and the demands are not always reasonable, and hitting pause. There's something to be said for deciding for yourself to...run. There are mornings when, even as I get dressed, and go through a prolonged warm-up of stretches, that my mind rebels against the foot-pounding I'm setting my self up for. Lucky for me, my body has a muscle-memory that ignores my mind once I start that foot-pounding. Because, there's something to be said for a morning that starts with a run outside, with just me and my thoughts or my music. Even when my mind is the worst kind of coach in the world (that last step, didn't that hurt? wait, is that a shin-splint coming on? are you sure you should be breathing this hard?), there's something to be said when my body ignores the chatter and the clatter and just moves. It's an amazing thing to think about. God gives us the tools and with a little sharpening, they move in a way that is also simply amazing. Point A to Point B, or Point A, around the loop and back, or Point A to Point B to Point A. Maybe that's what I enjoy about running: getting to the point.