Pinocchio

Did you know that cats are on the verge of extinction? That's because every time I lie to myself about how far I intend to run on my long run, God kills a kitten.

Take this morning, for example. It was the first time since last weekend that I woke up feeling completely healthy. But (and it was a pretty big but) I ran 30 km last weekend and, well, sometimes you need to take a step back in order to go forward. So, as my nose grew longer and longer, I repeated this mantra to myself:

Only 20 km today. I will only run 20 km today.

As I am often wont to do, I blamed the weather for my catastrophic failure to keep my promise to myself. I am a very honest person when it comes to my interactions with other people (I am also the master of Freudian slips and suffer from foot-in-mouth disease, so that makes me the queen of all things honest and true). Yet when it comes to being honest with myself and my training, all you need to do is throw some sunshine my way and promises go out the window along with my self-constraint. I'm like a puppy, except I only pee myself with excitement metaphorically.

So after I ran up to meet the other 30-odd runners who showed up for today's session with AIK, spent an hour and a half chatting with them while we roamed around town, got interviewed by the local paper (no big deal, happens to me all the time, seriously can't they just leave me alone, do they have to camp outside my house?), paused to try and convince an old NHL hockey legend to sell me his house at a reduced price, well, the damned sun was still out, still shining and I had already run more than 20 km.

I also still had to get home somehow.

No, I can't really blame the sun for making me take the scenic route on the way home. I can't even blame my two club mates who wanted to continue running a while longer. Because it was actually me who decided to join them and suggested we take the long way back. It was me who wanted to continue enjoying having a healthy body on a beautiful day. It was me who made God kill yet another kitten.