It has been said that runners have their best thoughts of the day while out running. Runner and writer
Michael Selman shares his
"Thoughts on Running" with us here at ontherunevents.com.
While I was getting ready for work this morning, my lovely wife was
busy
folding the laundry. "You know" she said with ultimate
contentment.
"It's such a nice feeling to see a set of my running attire for every
day
since I last did laundry." I knew what she was talking about right
away.
She's been running well, and running often. And it all comes out in the
wash.
Your laundry reveals a lot about you. The window to the dryer can be
like
a window to the soul. It suggests the seasons, and it showcases your
tastes, private as well as public. It reveals how you like to spend your
leisure time, and it tells no lies about your running. If you're not
running, there is less to wash, less to dry, and less to fold. Give me an
extra load any day.
When running has a focus and a goal, it seems to also achieve the type
of
consistency that makes the early wake-up call easier to answer. More
often than not, when running is going well, the alarm is turned off before
I have to face the music. That's how ready I am to add another pair of
shorts and a singlet to the pile of dirty clothes. There is no snooze
button for the runner with a mission.
Folding a pile of our running clothes always puts me in my own world.
As
I watch Harriet fold her lace tops, I can't help but to think of how good
she always looks in them. While I fold my special racing top, I always
recall and relive the race I ran in it the past weekend. And when the
pile is small, it means that the week was not as fulfilling as it could
have been. We both take joy in the fact that running clothes in the
laundry is a part of our lifestyle and our commonality.
Once in a while, the dryer seems to have a ravenous appetite. If there
are more of my wife's bottoms than tops, I try to recall exactly which day
she ran topless. You would think I would remember something like that!
If I end up not finding a match for one of my socks, I wonder if I
actually hopped instead of running one day. The dryer monster strikes
again.
The laundry isn't much different than the running, if you think about
it.
With both, you will get out of it exactly what you put in. If you put
running clothes in the wash, then it's running clothes you will soon be
folding. And if it's good running you put in, than good races will be
the result. You can't expect anything else, because it all comes out in
the wash.