Calgary

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=4160981It's a dark November morning.  I wait for daylight to slowly break, sometime after 7:30, throw on a few layers and stumble out the door, down the elevator, out the hotel.  29 degrees snaps me awake and I slowly roll into my pace.  Overcast, so there's no clear division between night and day, people are bustling their way to work, downtown from where I'm distancing myself.  My ankle is stiff from an old injury, it's cold.  Why am I doing this?  Phyllis asked me that about a year ago.  I still don't have a good answer.  About a mile in, it's coming together now.  My ankle feels good, my breathing is in tempo, I see a runner, I pass.  Two lonely figures on a well worn path.  I used to have a goal for my running.  A marathon, a race, something to focus my energy on.  Now I just run, and I've found that I'm a lot happier.  I can stop if I want, I can run fast if I want, I can daydream, take a picture.  It's much more liberating than focusing on a pace, a distance or a goal.  Fall is well spent here, the trees are just about all barren now.  I cross the river on my way back.  The end is near, my body feels renewed and strong.  It's a Monday morning, I'm 2000 miles or more from my home, my family.  I know no one here, and yet I've breathed their crisp air, seen a brief glimpse of the outstretched plains and their developing, changing city.  In a few hours I'll be flying back to home and hearth.  Why do I do this?  I guess it beats watching TV.