My Progress

Sunday, February 1, 2009

"Darwinian" thoughts on a cold dark morning

I was at my usual Wed morning track workout and toward the end of the hour, our coach told us to finish up with a ‘hard’ lap around the track, then a ‘recovery’ lap…rinse and repeat until time was up.

I headed to the outer edge of track so the faster people could wiz by and I wouldn’t be in their way and a few laps into this exercise had a strange and funny thought about evolution and this very track.

Here is how it shook out it my head – please keep in mind that although I try to drink water throughout the hour, there is a possibility that I was slightly dehydrated and suffering from low blood sugar – but here it is anyway. The fast people at the very inside of the track are the gazelles of the group, graceful and truly beautiful to watch. They move in unison too, a group of three or four will swing past me as if they are running on a single pair of legs, gliding effortlessly through the track (note I know it is not effortless for them, it just looks that way). The medium people are in the next few lanes closer to me, they don’t pass me as often as the gazelles but they are faster than me, for sure, I decided to call them the elk group. Still gorgeous as they pass me, one or two at a time, but there wasn’t that sense of unity or oneness that I felt amongst the gazelles. Then there is me and one or two others scattered along the outer edges of the track, I honestly didn’t know what to call my group, we move steadily but slowly around the circular field, maybe zebras? Anyway, I found it very interesting how this mirrors true behavior in the wild and I thought it was very funny that if a predator approached, I would be eaten first, there is no doubt about it! Not only was I the easiest to catch, but the outside perimeter is the most dangerous place to run…you are completely unprotected out there, while the gazelles run deep inside the pack…fast and strong. I shook it off and kept running, very grateful I had no real worries of a lion approaching and focused instead on the skinny vanilla latte with my name on at Starbucks afterward!

Funny how your mind wanders on the those dark mornings at the track huh?

No comments: