Under Pressure, or Why I Need to Run More

I have been incredibly stressed the past two weeks. There's been a lot to be stressed about. The lead editor of the big project I've been helping with went on vacation, so I got to be responsible for printing a 2,000 page document (I would have been in charge of most of those details anyways though. It just would have been nice to have her around as backup support.). I volunteered myself to be in charge of the t-shirts for our family reunion in two weeks (have you ever tried to get 25 people to agree on color, fit, and size?). And last week my grandpa died, so I had to make sudden arrangements to attend the funeral (on top of the general grieving stress).

All of this came to a head around 4:30 on Friday afternoon. In the proofing phase of the document, we discovered that about 20% of the graphics were wrong (our fault, not the printers). The t-shirt designs weren't coming through clearly, so they couldn't print. And my head was ready to explode. My coworker very kindly talked me through the worst of my hysteria (I was literally ready to cry), and Mike put things in perspective for me. The stress subsided a little.

But what really did it for me was the run I had when I finally made it home (at 7:30). It was like that Propel commercial--the one with the giant metal thing running through the streets that pieces fall off of until you see just the guy. I realized that in all of this stress, I had neglected to do anything physical. Heck, most days I wasn't even feeding myself properly. No wonder I felt like crap.

So I hereby make this declaration that I will not let my situation get that bad ever again. I will make running a priority. Because this week reminded me that I run not for exercise, but for stress relief.