Building a Folly

My ten-mile run yesterday ended up better than I thought it would.  I ran the last mile in 8:55, and felt strong; it was one of those runs where you seem to feel better the farther you run.

But it began very slowly as I struggled through a few miles of deep initial fatigue, and I think the reason is the cumulative effect of the (for me) hard physical work I have been doing all week constructing this garden shed/potting shed/adult playhouse, which I think we have decided to call a Folly:  "A building in the form of a castle, temple, etc., built to satisfy a fancy or conceit, often of an eccentric kind."  Pounding nails all day gives me a greater appreciation of one of our former runners who was a carpenter and would show up for hard runs late in the afternoon after a day of nailing down roof decking.  This is not as difficult, but it does wear down a person of ordinary ability.

It occurs to me that I am building two types of structures - one of them the carefully constructed edifice of fitness that I hope to achieve by November 10, and the other a "real" building constructed with studs and nails and topped with a cupola - both of them a "folly" in its own way!  But if it is a folly - and many would argue that running a marathon is surely the height of the foolishness of running - it is one that I am committed to constructing before the year is out, one way or another.