Who Beats Whom

4 Miles - 39.x1 minutes.
Today I think I outran my GPS satellites. I will have to talk to Garmin about that. I just kept running and my watch never beeped - Chat just kept going (but the secret is that Chat will just keep going and cares not for the beeping watch that the foolish human wears).
I have figured out one thing about running in general. Every day it is you versus you. It does not matter if I am out running in the middle of the night or at the break of dawn. The person I am always competing against is me. Sort of simple. No grader is as hard as I am when judging how fast, how long, how quick, how lazy, how springy my step is, or worst of all - if I am loafing through the first mile and then have to catch up in the home stretch (which does not happen most of the time).
Think of it as you running against all the times that you have ran before. Ghost images of yourself running the same path and going the same distance and eventually getting to the same destination. All of these mirror images constitute your running form in different conditions, cold, hot, snow, or rain. But all of them are there and you compete against them each and every time. It is like you wake up in the morning and all of your past "you" get up too. They strap on their shoes and grab the dog collar, walk up the hill (rain or shine), and you begin to run. When you begin the run you are all together for few strides, and then the pack begins to break up and spread out. The "you" from six months ago and five pounds lighter pulls ahead and begins the ascent leaving the current "you" lagging.
I think that some of my fat selves lie gasping at the bottom of the hill wondering if they will ever climb to the top and see the view.
The "me" is already there.