I’m waiting for Dan to get here because we’re about to go for a very long run. I don’t know if I’d do it if Dan weren’t coming over. He’s a big motivator, for more than just what he’s done over the past month, on this restrictive diet that would cause most of us to go fetal in tears.

I have a tendency to psyche myself out of the longer runs, telling myself that it’d be better if I waited another week before adding an additional mile, thinking there’s no way I’d finish. I don’t usually run with someone, either. Just me and music, the sun and my shoes. I thought it was the only way I’d actually be able to finish a long stretch without finding an excuse to stop. And on the shorter runs I just try to get the mileage over with as fast as possible. I exercise in order to stop exercising. I don’t usually find enjoyment while doing it. Unless I find something really good on the iPod.

But then I ran with Dan last week, and for eighty-nine minutes we circled my neighborhood, talking about seemingly everything. There were rough patches, sure, and we cursed the hills together, but the last half of the run went so quickly, the next thing I knew we were home and pleased with ourselves. We even made it to a movie on time. Instead of doing what we’d normally do on a couch, we did it outside, on the pavement. And when I thought I was going to die, Dan would rationalize the next stretch of sidewalk, and then suddenly we were past the part where I thought I was going to die, and we were still running (there was always so much more running to go).

So we’re doing it again today, even longer this time, even though this morning the last thing I wanted to do was lace up my sneakers. In this year of Taking Better Care of Ourselves Because Suddenly We’re Getting Diagnosed With Things That Make Us Sound Eighty, Dan and I have had to try new things to be healthy, inside and out. I don’t know how I’d do it without him, as I can’t imagine subjecting anybody else to the hours of introspective discussion he puts up with as we hit mile six, as we order hot tea, or as we wait in line to see a movie without popcorn. Dan is very good to me.

In other news: stee got his movie greenlit.