Tomas Quinones

Midnight Run

It’s 2am, and I just finished a run. I think I did about 5 or 6 miles running from my apartment down to Martin Luther King Bulevard and back. It was the stroke of midnight when I started my trot into night. I don’t know what came over me. I suppose I just felt really restless since I’ve been sitting in front of my computer all day long and really felt the need to stretch my legs.

I have had some strange sleep patterns ever since I had my two teeth pulled. Some nights I might sleep only 2 or 3 hours then it’s up and at them for the rest of the day, or I might sleep a very sound 12 hours but wake up feeling like I have a hang-over. I suppose last night’s run helped me sleep a solid 8 hours and not feel too crappy today.

There is something very nice about running or more often for me, biking at night. There is so little traffic in this area after midnight that it becomes quiet and peaceful save for the hum of I-84 just slightly North of me. But no loud buses or cars zooming by all the time, no annoying motorcycles revving their needlessly loud engines, and no excessively bassed stereos from “pimped” cars trying to be “cool”.

It’s just me on the pavement with two waterbottles, headlamp, and running shoes. Oh, and of course the mandatory shorts, wallet, cell phone and keys.

Running through the darkness with the only sound being your feet is very Zen-like. It was a good time to just kind of zone and meditate on the task at hand but then let my mind wander as the foot-falls become automatic.

I don’t particularly like running during the day. There is more smog in the air, people looking at you weird like you’re running from the law or just dressed differently, but it’s also just noisey and seemingly a bit more dangerous having to dodge traffic, cyclists, or people on the sidewalk with their toy dogs that will try to nip at you with the ferioucity of a penguin.

Providing I can make a living for myself as a self-employed web developer, I might just make my nightly runs a regular thing.