A Rogue Run

Anyone out there an X-Men fan? I am. Big time.

I watched the cartoon as a kid, read the comics as a young adult and have seen every movie released. I just think the premise of the story is so cool. Regular folks like you or I who suddenly discover that their body has mutated and they have some crazy new ability. They can control the weather, change their appearance, read minds, heal themselves or shoot laser beams out of their eyes.

I studied evolution in school. It was one of my favourite subjects. What I learned was that individuals don’t evolve, species do. I will not wake up one day with gills, wings or the ability to climb walls. But, over thousands of years, humans slowly change and adapt to their environment. If having gills will help us survive, we may evolve them. But not in my lifetime.

So X-Men is not based on sound science, but it is pretty cool.

Last night’s run got me thinking about the X-Men. You see, a running friend of mine, Brian, describes a great run as a Superman run. I like that. It works and I can immediately picture how well the run went. I like Superman, he’s a cool character with neat abilities. But I don’t gravitate to him the way I do the X-Men. So I’m stealing the idea of a Superman run and calling my great runs Rogue runs.

Rogue is, in my opinion, the coolest of the X-Men.

She’s also the most tragic.

Her ability is that she can absorb the power of anyone she touches. If you can fly and she touches you, she can fly. Pretty cool. Problem is that she quickly absorbs everything from you – your abilities, your memories and, if she holds on long enough, your life. She can’t turn this power on and off so she wears an outfit that covers every part of her but her head.

She can’t touch anyone without causing them great pain. As you might imagine, this becomes problematic when romantic relationships are involved. Hence the tragedy.

Still, I really like Rogue. She’s a bit of a loner. She’s tough as nails and doesn’t put up with any nonsense from anyone. She has crazy hair, a southern accent and an attitude that I admire.

So, I’m calling my kickass runs Rogue runs from now on.

Tonight, it was 30+ degrees with the humidity. I ran at 5pm, a few hours before it started to cool off. I was tired, sore and lethargic as I tied up my shoes. I fought the heat and the wind. I ran out of water at 8k. Despite all of this, I managed to pull off a 10k run in 1 hour and 1 minute. That’s the closest I have ever come to breaking the elusive 60-minute barrier for a 10k.

Oh, and there is another reason why I call it a Rogue run. 

By the time I got home, I was red-faced, dripping wet and downright disgusting. No one wanted to touch me either!