Running On Empty

Why did I start to run?

I don't think I really even know.

I guess ...that maybe it might have been to get into shape. I'm sure that was the start of it. I was feeling rather poorly about the way I looked in the mirror.

Then I saw her.

I have no idea what her name is. I've never worked up the courage to do more than smile at her as we run past each other in the park.

I had seen her for years before I got started running. She would be jogging down the side of the road as I drove by. I saw her many a mornings as I went to get breakfast at the Arches, or the King. It was often a surprise to me how far she would make it in the time I was sitting in the drive through.

Anyway, I decided to get off my growing butt and put shoe to road one day. That I managed to do it again on the second day is a tribute to painkillers not to my persistence.

I did notice that after I got up and moved, I stopped hurting.

Till I stopped.

Well somehow I managed to get that one foot in front of the other thing worked out and here I am.

In hopeless love with a girl I can't make my fool self talk to.

What does she look like? Well she's a runner so she's skinny. Wiry, might be a better description for her. There is a lot of muscle tone on her legs and she's not lacking in the womanly curves, they're just...honed down to fit her passion for the pace.

At the moment she's about a half-mile in front of me. This long straight country road gets little traffic so we're alone for the most part.

I wonder about her. I mean she runs all the time. Is she a marathon runner? She's got the body and pace for it. Hell half the time when I'm dropping into a walking step, to let burning muscles ease up, she's still going for another ten miles.

As we pass the long row of mailboxes and take the little turn I can already feel my calves starting to burn. There is a rise in grade here. If I was in my car I would just hit the gas and up it I would go... no strain... no pain... no effort.

Maybe that's what got me to start running. Life was too easy. It was just coasting by on four wheels.

I see her pick up the pace as she starts up the grade.

Passing the last mailbox I decide that I've let far too much of life pass me by. I want to know her name. I want to know why she runs. I want to...

I want to hold her in my arms and kiss her.

It's like an overpowering urge to do the impossible. I feel it settle around me with the same type of warmth that lead me out onto the roads in the first place. I want to hold her in my arms, her body tight and hot from running. I want to smell the sweat, I want to feel her damp hair under my fingers. I want to tell her my name and hear her tell me hers.

Then I want to taste her lips.

I want to know if she has passion in her for more than the steady pace of running. Will a simple kiss from me awaken new passions in her or will I find myself running alone? Will so simple a thing as a kiss drive her from the familiar roads we have traveled down together?

I have to know!

Sucking air faster and deeper than I have ever done, I saturate my blood with it. As my feet hit the bottom of the grade I look up and see her halfway up it, her pace again has doubles. She's all but sprinting for the top of the hill.

I leave my normal step by step and lengthen my stride. The tips of my toes catching the gravel roadbed and digging in. Every step almost a pole-vault over my toes, I grab at the gravel with the next foot and then do the same again.

The cold morning air starts to chill my lungs and burn as I pass the halfway mark. Glancing up I see her nearing the top!

I dig into a place in myself I didn't know I had till then. A place of bone and marrow but at the same time it's power never harnessed. It comes to my call ready and willing to give everything in this time of need.

I will know her, I will hold her in my arms and I will kiss her!

These things that I have long wanted will happen if I just run faster, if I top the hill just as she does! If I push to the very last I will make it to her side and together we will stride by stride go down the other side. Our pace will slow to a walk to cool ourselves. I will look in her eyes as I pant. She will look over to me and I will smile. It will be the start that will lead to what I want. Just one step at a time like everything but I know ...I know, it will be enough.

Breathing like a bellows, my pulse racing, my heart a thunder in my chest... I top the hill!

She's maybe ten feet from me as I skid in the gravel to a halt. She's leaned forward panting for every breath. Her eyes are on her feet. She purses her lips to blow out each breath giving the morning air a goodbye kiss as it leaves her mouth.

She glances up at me, sucking air for all I'm worth. A smile forms on her lips and she slowly stands up, drawing a deep breath into her chest. I watch her breasts rise, the nipples straining out the thin sweat soaked shirt.

"Hi.... I'm Jill." She says with hardly breath to talk.

I try to respond but have to take several deep breaths before I can. She grins at me. I grin back.

"Hello... I'm Jack."

She glances down the hill to a long driveway and a house that's set off the road.

"That's my place...would you like something to drink, Jack?"

I nod slowly.

"Water would be great." I say after a second just looking at her.

"Come on." she gestures with her head. I notice that she waits till I'm beside to start down.

Following her down the hill, my heart is a tumble.