"You must in all Airs follow the strength, spirit and disposition of the horse, and do nothing against nature; for art is but to set nature in order, and nothing else." – William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Newcastle

It was 4:30 in the morning. 

I put on my sneakers and a pair of leggings with a bright pink zip-up hoodie, it was a little tight on me in all the wrong ways. I checked myself in the mirror. 

Pony tail.

Headphones. 

Mace. 

I stepped outside and shut the door behind me. It was very quiet. 4:30 is too early for the birds to start singing. One of the toads in the creek let out a low croak. 

I had to commit. If I am going to get strong enough to sit the red mare’s trot, I needed to lose the extra weight and develop some serious core strength. 

I looked down the driveway. It faded out near the tree line, I couldn’t see into the brush.

I briefly considered trying to find a cheap treadmill.

The longer I stared at the shadows in the trees the more demons I could see among them. The brush reached up, creating odd shadows that were hard to decipher.  

I thought of the red mare and before I could lose my resolve, I set off at a gallop. 

I hadn’t stretched, walked or warmed up at all.

It was in short order before I was gasping for air, but I was off the driveway and down the road. 

A mailbox making itself visible scared me faster.

The air came in short, shallow gasps.

I made it about half a mile before I was forced to walk, my side ached like someone had stabbed me. 

This lasted about 10 seconds before I couldn’t take it anymore and kicked off into a run again, not quite as fast as the first bit, but faster than was comfortable.

A cat scurried a little ahead of me and I spooked into the middle of the road. I stood there, trying to breathe for a long moment. 

My heart was thumping in my ears. 

I didn’t want to look at my phone to try and start a playlist, that would forfeit my night vision. 

I started off at a run again, too fast for my fitness level. 

I had driven this path the day before mapping it out, it was just shy of four miles. I wasn’t sure how long it would take me. I hadn’t tried running like this before. 

The hills I had driven on hadn’t appeared that bad. On foot, I felt as though they went on forever. 

It was about 5:15 when the first bird started singing. 

I released a deep sigh of relief. 

The darkness without birds is much scarier.

When I got back to my apartment, it was nearly 6 AM. I was very slow. But I was also unfit. I needed to take many walk breaks from wheezing. 

I immediately showered myself off. When I was finished I felt less smelly but still wired and jumpy.  

It was going to be a long day at work.