I'm working on positive thinking while running.

So, I decide to run to work one morning to get in my 5 miles or so for the day. It's still dark when I leave, so rather than run along cranky, old, industrial Third Avenue in Gowanus (what Real Estate agents call Park Slope), I run on commercial, more populated Smith Street.

*I stop to walk (I'm actually run/walking the NYC Marathon next Sunday) and someone holds a gun to my head and asks for money. I don't have any on me, I reply and the assailant leads me into the ATM entry of a nearby bank and demands I take out all my money. So, the gun is by my head and I figure I have nothing to lose, so I swing my arm up and knock the gun away from my head. Her (it's a woman) finger is on the trigger and the gun goes off. The bullet ricochets off of the ATM machine and goes into my chest. I'm lying on the floor of the bank entrance blood pouring from my chest and the thief runs out of the place, leaving me to die.*

My Nike + brings me out of my thoughts. "You have completed 2.5 miles. You have run for 27 minutes. Your average pace is 10:52." Whoa that's a dramatic change. I was right on target (at 10:30) at 2 miles. Hm, maybe it was that *lovely daydream* that slowed me down. People ask me what I think of while running. The above paragraph is one example.

This past summer I was often thinking, "ugh, it's so humid." "This hill isn't ending." "Why am I running so slow? I must be exhausted." I was having just those thoughts running up 9th Street in Brooklyn, when I stopped dead in my tracks and wondered what the hell is going on with my run. So, I checked in with myself. Heart: normal. Breathing: normal. Legs: fine. So, what stopped me? Maybe my reminding myself how humid it is, how long the hill is and slowly I'm running. Maybe.

Every other issue of Runner's World mentions somewhere to stay positive. Create a mantra and repeat it as you go through a challenge. Set a goal and concentrate on it. Yeah, yeah. I'm positive. Just ask my teammates. I'm always goofing around on slow runs, singing, teasing them, making believe I'm faster than they are, calling them slow pokes. Oh.

Hm.

And so, not only is my Nike+ app reporting my distance and pace, it's now pumping happy thoughts into my brain with music. Nancy Lamott's "Accentuate the Positive," Pat Cisarano's "All in This Together, "Brazilian Suite," a jazz piece by Michel Petrucciani, that little person from France, who despite his apparent drawbacks became a nationally renowned and internationally respected jazz pianist. The Allegro movement ("Spring") from Vivaldi's "The Four Season." It's not your typical Power Song List, but it sure is uplifting. And it moves my brain into a more positive place. I've been running with it almost every run and it keeps me on track mentally.

No headphones, mind you. No earbuds. My phone sits in my Spibelt, set at a level that allows me to hear my half-mile pace feedback and my positive message of the moment. And so, goodbye negative thoughts. Hello happy thoughts. The power of positive thinking.

Ugh. I hope all those cheering crowds along 4th Avenue in Brooklyn and First and Fifth Avenues in Manhattan don't drown out my positive music and keep me from tracking my pace. I hate that.