Mom, There’s Skeletons in the Closet
by
Michael Rivarde
You ever wonder if you’ve made the wrong decisions in life? Deep question, I know. It’s one of the questions that I ask myself when I’m running.
I’m not talking about things like, what you had for lunch or that one outfit that you wore for your 8th grade yearbook picture. I mean more along the lines of words you spoke to somebody out of frustration or how you treated somebody out of anger. The bad decisions that you have made, how they reflect on you as a person, and how will people remember you.
I for one don’t believe in fate, and I believe that our decisions get us exactly to where we are supposed to be, but I often question the choices that I have made… but I have a bad habit of doing this on my runs. It’s when I’m in my head the most and tend to let these negative thoughts creep in and affect my running at times.
I’m my own worst critic, and other times I’m very hard on myself, and for this reason I love to run with music. It helps me concentrate and not be in my own head, but rather, in the booth with Lil Wayne rapping ‘A Milli’ or with Larry June singing along to ‘Smoothies in 1993.’ To be honest, I’d rather be there than worried about my breathing, or worrying about other miscellaneous things I don’t want to even begin to think about. Running is my escape from reality, and the last thing I want to do is be trapped in my own thoughts. There is doubt there. Doubt that I can’t finish this run. Doubt that I can’t live up to my own expectations. Doubt that I have made the wrong decisions about a lot of things in my life. Was I supposed to major in English? Maybe I was supposed to become a therapist? Who knows.
“MOM. THERE’S SKELETONS IN THE CLOSET!”
You may be reading this and have the same thoughts when you go on a run. Doubt. For whatever reason, it gets the best of us at times. The fear of accomplishing something can be overshadowed by the doubt that we won’t be able to. We become our own worst enemy by letting those negative thoughts win.
But, you started the run. You chose to begin this beautiful movement and motion, that struck fear into those negative thoughts. Doubt can be overcome by will. Just remember that you willed yourself to start a run, and in turn become a better you. For all the things that you question, the positive choices and decisions have all brought you here, to this moment, to finish the run that you started. No skeletons in the closet can catch you as you begin to fly through the streets, and trails, through time and space.
These negative thoughts don’t matter when you’re out running. It’s just you, and the vision of a better you at the finish. So this is for you, you finisher of the run that you want to accomplish. There is nothing standing in the way between you and wherever your feet wish to take you. Remember that you chose to go, and no matter whatever decisions that you have made in the past, you’re a rock star.
In truth, we all have skeletons in our closets, but remember, they’re actually afraid of us. They’re afraid of who you were, who you are, and who you will be.
Michael Rivarde is the Red Rock Running Company Centennial Store Manager
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Every Run is a Good Run