Condition Red

*6:52am Sunday. Mile 3.5 of a 7 mile run. Somewhere in south San Jose.

Minor rumbles.
Ignore? Yes/No/Cancel. Press Yes.

*6:57am Sunday, Mile 4.1.

Rumblings grow slightly more urgent. Briefly consider stopping, but find no areas of opportunity. Besides, urgency crests, then subsides.
Ignore? Yes/No/Remind me Later. Press Remind Me Later.

*7:02am Sunday, Mile 4.6

The urgency and temporal relief come in sine wave fashion. I think I can make it home to mile 7. Starting to feel sweat, not from the heat, but a cold, clammy kind of sweat. Sine wave peaks come in shorter intervals. Internal dialogue with self begins; tempting self with images of making it all the way home.
Ignore? Yes/No/Remind me Later. Press No.


*7:06am Sunday, Mile 5.0

This is not a drill. Repeat, this is not a drill. Internal dialogue turns to internal pleading, promising myself untold riches if it would just hold on for a couple of minutes more. I spy a Starbucks. I will forever be grateful to its corporate open-door policy. I sprint in, and barely make it. Minutes later, I reemerge. I feel as though the weight of the world has lifted off of my shoulders. I have transcended...
Ignore? Yes/No/Remind me Later. Having narrowly averted a reboot, Press Yes.

*7:25am Sunday, Mile 7.0
Stop running. Home at last. I vow to purchase at least two grandes on the way to work tomorrow to repay that corner Starbucks for providing me with salvation.