Nothing says welcome to reality than a jarring alarm at 6 o’clock or my barely open eyes trying to remember where I am. After having spent 2 weeks in different hotels, I had forgotten what it felt like to sleep in my bed.
Vacations are great, well besides the insufficient leg room, bad airline food, crying babies, flight delays and the long lines. Apart from all that, vacations are great. Time to recharge your batteries, explore new places, meet new people, try different things and leave your everyday troubles behind.
But now my vacation is over and its back to the real world. I never thought I would say this, but it feels great to be back in the swing of things. Being greeted by piles of snow on the sidewalk, 30 degree temperature, the Immigration officer saying, welcome home, yes I am home. Now its time to grab my bags and get into my car and make that 3 hour drive to my home.
As mundane and monotonous as work could be sometimes, I am looking forward to going back and catching up with everyone, running my familiar sidewalk again and most importantly back to my favorite coffee shop and the people watching and having a chance to share my adventure and experience with my friends.
It is not to say that I did not enjoy my time away, but there is something about the comfort of my bed and cooking again in my kitchen that makes me happy. No doubt I will be ready for another vacation in a few months, but for now, my batteries are recharged and I feel ready to take on the world.
I feel so ready to take on the world that I signed up for my first half marathon for this year which will happen in a week. I barely ran while I was away. 2 weeks of traveling and 4 countries to visit and explore, leaves very little time for running.
However, I figured the best way to get back into it and motivate myself was to put on jeans that were snug and realize vacation is now over and I need that running to get back into shape.
My bags still lay unpacked. But I put on my running shoes and head off for a 10 mile run. The more I pound the sidewalk, I realize that even short breaks from it make it hard to get into my usual pace and rhythm. But that is not going to stop me, the familiar haunts, the smell of food wafting from the restaurants that I run past, makes me smile that I am in my comfort zone.
As much as I enjoyed the new experience of new countries, I missed the familiarity of the known, the alone time running with my thoughts and letting my mind wander fleetingly from one thing to another.
I keep running thinking about the people I met, some will be lifetime friends and others just a chance encounter in a country, but no matter what, they played their part in my adventure, which I will probably not forget.
But now that is behind me, there is a half marathon looming over my head and I need to keep going no matter how hard it is. I want to turn around at mile 7, but I need to run 10 miles to make sure I am ready to run 13.1 miles next week.
One of my favorite songs comes on and I keep going, lost once again my thoughts.
My Random Musings 