Running Errands

So there I was on my way out of Starbucks today, wrapping up my lunch break with a co-worker, and clinging to my tall coffee in desperate hope that it would wake me up and get me through the afternoon.  We made a quick detour toward CVS when I remembered the running store just two doors down .

"I'm going to dip in here real quick," I said.  "I want to see if they have these electrolyte tablets I've been looking for and save myself a trip to REI tonight."

Up to this point, I'd been playing over my plan for the night, aiming to be as efficient as possible.  I had a pretty full plate on my hands: walking the dog, getting in a recovery 7 miler, whipping up some dinner, quick trip to REI for the tablets, settling in for the night to cheer on the Caps (who are currently putting on yet another scoring clinic tonight: C-A-P-S, CAPS CAPS CAPS!...I digress).  I've been putting off the trip to REI all week but with a hockey game of my own tomorrow night and then actually going to the Caps game on Friday night, time was running out to have them for my long run on Saturday.  Life is rough, what can I say?  And Wednesday nights, my wife has class so I'm pretty much on my own to get these things done.

As I said, I was mulling these plans over when my co-worker just looked at me, as if it'd been just hanging there to be plucked, she said, "Why don't you just run to REI, duck in, duck out, and be on your way." 

A smile broke across her face.  She must have seen the look of astonishment on my face as I worked this over.

"Hello!?  You couldn't come up with that on your own?" she nudged.

"I...well...that's just brilliant.  That's absolutely brilliant."

Running errands in the most literal sense of the expression.

To razor things down further, I took Mattie's bucking bronco immitation when I walked in the door to mean she could handle (and perhaps needed) a 7 miler of her own.  With dog leashed up and debit card in my pocket, we headed out at a slow trot down to REI. 

The beauty here too is that REI is only 2 miles away from the house, so I actually had to find a way to add mileage to the run.  Needing only 3 more miles, I ended up running the Goblin Gallop 5K course that begins in the same shopping center as REI.  Truly, all the pieces fell into place.

With 5 miles down, I clipped Mattie's leash to the bench outside, shut the tunes off, and popped into REI for my tablets.  In and out in four minutes and probably would have been faster had I not bumped into a friend from high school who works there.

"You run here?"
"Yep," sweat starting to run down my face.  "Trying to multi-task tonight."
"Guess you don't need a bag then, huh?"
(pointing to my zipper pocket)
"Solid."

Two miles later, Mattie and I returned home.  While she ate, I showered, then got the pot of water on the stove, boiled up some pasta, and padded downstairs nearly in time for the opening faceoff.   All tasks checked off the list, a bountiful feast (i.e. an entire box of pasta with the bunch of asparagus from the fridge cut in) before me, and an exhausted dog stretched out beside me.  Bliss!

Have you taken the chance to "run some errands"?