I’m amazed that I’ve now reached the 1200th post on my silly little blog. It’s been a staple in keeping my retirement sanity, along with my running streak. This combination occupies the first couple hours of each morning to provide me with a rewarding sense of daily accomplishment. Both can be tedious tasks that require discipline and mental strength to persevere. This morning, for example, I ran my typical downtown route but imagined that I was in my old neighborhood. I visualized every turn, landmark, bus stop, mile-marker and hill that was part of the course that became familiar over a five-year span. As I ran by the waterfront today, I was envisioning what I once called “retirement circle,” a cul-de-sac that was halfway through my former neighborhood route. Instead of seeing the homeless sitting on park benches, I was looking at beautiful landscaped yards and fine homes. 

By superimposing one route over the other, it challenged my mind to focus on the past and became a welcome distraction from the monotony of each step. There truly is a sharp contrast between suburbia and downtown, each with a distinct personality.  It’s not that I miss the old neighborhood – it’s just a matter of adjusting to running through busy intersections and on uneven sidewalks while avoiding scooters, bicycles, commuters, and homeless people. It requires so much more awareness to circumvent the obstacles of a busy downtown. It was a little less imposing this morning since it was a quiet Saturday and not a hectic work day. Otherwise, I might not have been able to complete this fun mental exercise that accompanied the physical strain of day 4,045 of my continuous running streak. 

After the run each morning, I like to relax at the keyboard and let my mind guide my fingers. Often I just start writing without a conscious topic or goal. As a result, many of my posts are nothing but meandering ramblings that somehow come together in the end. By 10 a.m. every single morning, I’ve run 3.1 miles and submitted another short chapter to this blog. Sometimes I add a humorous poem that comes to me during the run and keeps my brain off the tedious task at hand. Today, however, it was just a mind game that kept me going, as I mentally rambled through the old neighborhood while navigating the new.