{"id":20138,"date":"2017-12-04T20:52:45","date_gmt":"2017-12-05T01:52:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.runkevinrun.com\/?p=20138"},"modified":"2017-12-05T01:25:37","modified_gmt":"2017-12-05T06:25:37","slug":"the-road-runner-coyote-dichotomy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/?p=20138","title":{"rendered":"The Road Runner \/ Coyote Dichotomy"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m in a dark place; I seem to have gone from renting an apartment in such a land to being landed gentry; if not a permanent resident there I certainly have a vacation home amongst the dismal and depressed.<\/p>\n

There are times when I aspirationally seek to write something profound\u2026 or maybe insightful\u2026 but at the very least I try and aim for something worthy of skimming.\u00a0 Today\u2019s a moment of pretention and I\u2019m not entirely sure where it falls on the continuum of quality.\u00a0 But it seemed like a good idea when I first opened my copy of Microsoft Word on this flight to this weekend\u2019s marathon in Hawaii.<\/p>\n

You know those sports movies\/interviews\/documentaries\/self-help books wherein we learn competitors \u201cvisualize\u201d their success?\u00a0 The ones that demonstrate how the athlete recites a mantra or engages in some good luck ritual to set him or herself up for victory?\u00a0 There are times when I think I have my own mantra\/ritual\u2026 and then there are times when I think it\u2019s all a bunch of hooey about a whole bunch of hooey.<\/p>\n

But as I said above \u2013 I\u2019m in a dark place.\u00a0 And I\u2019m willing to try just about anything.\u00a0 My brother recently advised me to maybe go see a doctor for the lingering tailbone issues, the pain in my butt still being, well, a pain in my butt.\u00a0 But I waved this sensible advice aside.\u00a0 Ergo, maybe I\u2019m *not* willing to try anything.\u00a0 Between you, me, and the other tens of runkevinrun.com readers, I\u2019ve found sports medicine on these kinds of injuries to be a waste of time, money and energy.\u00a0 Maybe the stretches or techniques they prescribe are a benefit but the diagnosis and treatment usually comes down to rest, ice, compression, elevation \u2013 the RICE methodology that\u2019s been drilled into athletes since time immemorial (albeit maybe not always in that same terminology).\u00a0 But it always comes down to \u201cmaybe you shouldn\u2019t run as much as you are\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Which, yeah, maybe but\u2026 well\u2026 do I run to feel better even if it causes pain or am in pain because I\u2019m running trying to feel better?\u00a0 That\u2019s not phrased correctly but, shrug, you know what I mean.\u00a0 And if not, well, relying on me at this point to make sense is perhaps senseless.<\/p>\n

Bottom line: I\u2019m not running well.\u00a0 Of that I can aver and testify under oath.\u00a0 I\u2019ve written about it on this stilly blog thing seemingly ad nauseam.\u00a0 And all of that is contributing to my mood to be sure.\u00a0 I\u2019ve tried internally analyzing a few things, not only physical interrogations but mental diagnostics as well to see if I can\u2019t break through the \u201cwall\u201d of doubt, pain, and failure.<\/p>\n

And here\u2019s where the pretention comes in.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been pondering how there are two types of me when it comes to running.<\/p>\n

Ready for the pretention?\u00a0 Because here it comes.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m either the road runner (beep-beep!) or I\u2019m the coyote.<\/p>\n

And not the real world animals.\u00a0 I\u2019m talking the Looney Tunes characters.<\/p>\n

The fact is I have been known on rare occasions to be a seemingly mindless running machine, a driven, focused, running, always running, dude\u2026 to the point that laws of physics do not apply.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

e.g.<\/em> If there\u2019s a mental wall, I can paint a hole and run right through it.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>But far more often I\u2019m Wile E. Coyote, self-proclaimed and self-printed business card emblazoned \u201csuper genius.\u201d\u00a0 I have plans and notions; I\u2019m an ideas man!\u00a0 I seemingly have an unlimited amount of imagination and access to ACME products to make my vision a reality.\u00a0 But I also tend to have my plans and ideas and notions and concepts go horribly, horribly, painfully awry.<\/p>\n

e.g. 2: The Secret of the Ooze<\/em>: If there\u2019s a catapult that will fling a rock on me, it\u2019ll flip itself backwards and the shooter will be hoisted by his or her own petard\u2026 or in this case trebuchet.<\/p>\n