I can do this.
“I can do this. I can run without going overboard.” Even as she said it to herself, she didn’t believe it. For every time she told herself that she could run without going overboard, she had a hundred voices inside her pushing to go further. “If I run like this every day, I’ll beat my best month’s mileage. I could even beat my best year.” She could feel it pulling at her.
She had stopped participating in Nike+’s online challenges in an effort to stop the running from taking control again. “Randy trusts me. I need to show him that I can do this.” She pressed the middle button on her new little iPod. The male voice told her that she had run too far and that she should have turned back a couple of miles ago.
She was running in ankle-deep snow with more coming down. Months ago, her lungs got used to the mountain air and running here felt as good as running at home. She had even become accustomed to the cold. “There is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing.” Who told her that? Kevin? Roscoe? Angie? She didn’t know anymore, but she had learned how much clothing to wear to keep warm and to prevent sweating.
“Why? Why did I go out again today? Today was supposed to be my rest day. Remember those? Rest days? God, I don’t want to rest. This is how people get injured. They just keep running every day without rest and then wonder why they get stress fractures. God, I wish Angie wasn’t so busy this time of the year.” The thought of Mt. Zen Cafe at the end of her run usually enticed her to turn around, but Angie and Curly were up to their eyeballs in ski jackets.
“So rude.” Sierra wondered if she was like that last year. “They just take tables all day long and don’t clean up after themselves. They just expect someone to bus the table.” She caught herself. The unspoken rule at Mt. Zen Cafe was that you were supposed to bus your own table during the winter, but it was unspoken. It’s not like Angie had a sign on the wall telling the tourists to clean up after themselves. It’s not really fair to expect them to bus their own table.
Sierra pushed the button on the middle of her iPod again and the voice told her that one mile had slipped beneath her feet. She immediately turned around and headed toward the busy cafe. She knew that she would get hell from Kevin for this run if she didn’t turn around now.