The Third Wind

I hear my breath. It's ragged , fighting and asking for more than it can get.I want to be able to gulp copious amounts of air and let it out in equally large quantities. This must be how it feels to struggle for breath.This *is* how it feels to struggle for breath.Nothing brings the mind into sharp focus like the struggle for survival.This is what i am doing - struggling to survive.

Then things start to happen. I have just finished mile 5 , my target today is to run 10 miles. The mind needs to cope with many variables - it needs to regulate the body temperature , the heart rate , the muscular contractions , the rhythm of the run , the breathing. All of those are peanuts for the mind as it does this on a regular basis until almost unconsciously it faces the most formidable enemy of all - Itself.

Vasomotor Rhinitis : This is a term for a poorly understood condition where people have a stuffy or draining nose but have no evidence of specific allergies.What it does is however, manifest and real.For runners it's a phlegm manufacturer and *not* the best thing to happen when you are trying to "create" air to feed the brain.I have this condition.

Like an ace lawyer the mind argues to stop the incessant and insatiable desire of madness to carry on despite the pain, the phlegm , the pounding . In it's own way it's effective.2 votes to stop , 2 votes to continue. It's dead even. Meanwhile , i've carried on past mile 6.For a moment the lawyer mind looks at the numbers and doubts whether the pain is really manifest and whether it really has a case.This is all that i require.I force the numbers to change : 0-4.Continue.

And then the side stitch joins us. She is my good friend. She never fails to look me up about mile 6.3.She goes away pretty soon for her errands but the conversation with her distracts me enough to forget about the lawyer. But, as she leaves I wake up to mile 6.66.I wish it was mile 8 , but of course,this is the critical number.I have just sailed on my second wind. I am still waiting for the third wind.Why 6.66? I don't know. Maybe because it's a number i have associated with the biblical devil ,inspite of my athestic outlook.Or it's a number that's so symmetric that it looks a nice number for a time-mark.But , when i cross over this one - it's as if i have crossed the bridge. I have gone to the other side.

I am still waiting for the third wind. The lawyer mind has recouped and regathered it's energies.The legs are even more painful now.The lungs are burning as if they are lit on fire.The odds are stacking up : one by one .This is how i like it.Bring 'em on.I am still waiting for the third wind.

I have just gone past mile 7.25 - now every half of a quarter mile is a battle I struggle to win.The phlegm in my mouth now regularly forms a film like bubble gum blowing up when i open my mouth not letting air to pass through.I spit it.Immediately , it forces me to gulp more air.Which produces more phlegm , which i spit again.The nose clears up momentarily only to be congested again.I breathe out hard into my t-shirt.It's soaking wet now as if a cloud just burst on top of my head.My eyes start to smart from the acid in the sweat. I clear it with my hand.But the sweat keeps flowing.The phlegm is now more frequent.I need to clear it as soon as it congests.I have just cleared mile 7.8 . I think of it as my 8th mile.No , it *is* my 8th mile. This does wonders. Psychlogically , I have just 2 more miles to go.This is amazing.All my doubts clear.I reach out and grasp hope and I run with it.

The third wind can catch me if it can.