Running has given me the time in my life to stop and think about the days, weeks, months, and years that I would not have had the time in this busy life to think about otherwise, and, hopefully, improve my life.

I have a running routine in Florida.  Every other day I go to the gym and do all my machines and then go for a run on the beach.   Other days, I just run on the beach.  I make my day revolve around low tide, and even Maria knows not to schedule anything during low tide because I will be running on the beach.

So, last week I went to the gym, did my upper body exercises and went out to run on MY BEACH.  As I walked up the walkway to the beach, I almost died.  There were hundreds, maybe even thousands, of people on MY BEACH.  In my mind, I predetermined that my run was ruined because I would constantly have to stop and run around all the brats with their Frisbees, beach balls, and even worse, wet dogs.  My first inclination was to turn around and go home, or maybe I should go run the Mala Copa trails that are just behind me.

Knowing that this was my last day to run on the beach for a while since I was going back to New England for two weeks, where it was snowing, I decided to tough it out for at least a few miles and at least make it a short run on MY BEACH.

MY Beach

So off I went, running on a beautiful beach, in the sunshine, with a light wind, and beautiful waves.

I looked down the beach at what looked like a sea of people.  As I approached each group of people, I noticed that in fact each group was a few hundred yards apart and some places they were a half a mile apart, but when you looked straight down the beach on such a long horizontal plane it looked like a “sea of people.”  It was amazing how once my mind realized this, and as I passed each group one at a time, that it really wasn’t so bad.

The Frisbees were never in my way, the beach balls really weren’t a big deal, and the wet dogs were kind of cute.  At one point a group of people threw me the football…that I caught one handed…and threw back in a perfect spiral.

So, I thought about life’s lesson learned on this run.  Every morning when you get up and all the things you have to do that day just seem so overwhelming, and it seems that there is no way you can get them all done, don’t look at those tasks as a “SEA OF PEOPLE.”   Just take them on as one group at a time and work your way down MY BEACH each day.  If you look at it as one big problem, it is overwhelming and you will stress out.  If you are lucky, someone will toss you a football.

Now lace up your shoes and go for a run.