It’s 5:00 am. The alarm rings. I listen to the news, then I stretch myself extensively, get up, slip into my running clothes and throw the coffee machine. Everything is much easier with a coffee. I go to the balcony to check the temperature, it has zero degrees, no cloud on the still sleeping sky and no wind. The fields wrap themselves in morning dew, and apart from a few lighted windows, the neighborhood still seems to lie in the warm bed. I breathe deeply a few times and enjoy the fresh, still fresh morning air. After I have drunk my coffee, I leave the apartment.
The road expands expectantly before me, without making demands, without raising claims. He wants nothing more than that I run on him and presents himself at this early hour from its most beautiful side. He does not care what I look like, whether my hair is styled, whether I’m made up, how thick or thin I am. He is there for me – always – he takes me as I am, completely unconditionally. No accusations, no attempts at change, no unfulfillable expectations. Always reliable, never let me down. I can just be myself, not a role I have to slip into, no social conventions I should stick to. Body and mind in harmony with nature.
Accompanied by the morning song of the birds I run towards the rising sun, which tenderly and hopefully initiates the day. It’s good to breathe in the cool morning air. One almost has the impression that nothing exists at night, everything disappears into a nowhere, to move back to its place in the world with the sun in the morning. In this magic of night-to-day transition, you expect to see small elves flare up at any moment, or trolls peeking out from among the trees. The brook flows with a chuckle beside me, and with the leisurely awakening of the world I, too, become more alert.
My steps correspond with my breathing rhythm, my heart rate increases, my body temperature rises, and I feel life pulsing in me with a force that only happens when walking. I feel how my cells are flooded with oxygen and I am pleased with the performance of my body. Far away are still the annoyances of the coming day, the people in the subway with their unpleasant body exhalations, the smombies, which fell dead dead, they would take away their smartphones. No talk of all the ruthless idiots who could not even spell out the word behavior if you told them – who slam a door on your nose, or almost push you off the escalator to catch the incoming subway. Nothing but peace and birdsong,
Everything is better after a run. The water under the shower feels more intense on the well-blooded skin and prickles pleasant, almost like pats. The breakfast tastes a thousand times better. The whole day is better, if I treat myself to a run in the morning. In the meantime, the day has completely dawned, the sky presents itself in its most beautiful blue and the sun shines with a passion, as if it were her personal concern to make this day the most beautiful of my life.