Intuition

A few months ago I had a job interview lined up. The night before I was preparing and had the thought of my car not starting, and then how would I get to the interview? I brushed the thought aside with the notion to not think negatively of such things, but checked the train schedule all just the same. Wouldn’t you know that next morning my car indeed did not start! But I was prepared. I simply walked myself to the train station and managed to make my scheduled appointment with minutes to spare.

How many times do you get a flash of a song play through your head only to turn on the radio and there it is. It’s that gut feeling or a premonition that we all have gotten at some point in our lives. I feel like my intuition sets in quite a lot. Sometimes I try and ignore that nagging twitch that sets in from the depth of my stomach and takes over my whole body. Sometimes there is nothing to be done but go through the motions of life and see what surprises come my way.

This was true for the Davis Moo-nlight Half Marathon where I recently participated. I was really excited to be running in an evening race and had very much been looking forward to it. The day before the race however, I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was going to go awry. DNF kept flashing through my head. I was able to brush this thought aside as I thought I was just being paranoid, but what I couldn’t get out of my head was the fact that I would not be running 13.1 miles. Hours before the race I mentioned this to my friend who came to support me. And since she is such a good friend, she informed me that it was all just nerves and I will do great!

The race began, and by mile two I was not a happy runner. I felt sick to my stomach and the dreaded fear of needing a restroom kicked in overdrive. It was then that I made the decision to slow my pace down and jog the course. Being that my goal was to run two Half Mary’s back to back so that I may qualify for Half Fanatics and not PR, I was okay with this decision. I even stopped to use the restroom which didn’t seem to help. There were certain parts of the course that went through the park that I really enjoyed. I loved the chalk drawings and positive sayings the organizers drew along the pavement. As I crossed the finish line however, I noticed my Garmin stated 12.2 and not 13.1 miles ran. Did my Garmin wig out or was it a course error? Under further investigation it became quite clear that miscommunication and poor signage led to the course indeed being a complete mile off.

My intuition was right on par. While I did not DNF and kept running despite the way I was feeling, I did not indeed run the whole 13.1 miles (of no fault of my own). And just for the record, I was still able to qualify as a Half Fanatic in the first level Neptune phase, for I ran 3 Half Mary’s in 43 days. I would have been quite irate if I did not qualify due to a race director’s mistake. But instead, I am ecstatic to join the Half Fanatic Asylum.

I think I am going to trust that gut feeling more often. And while it is not as intense as the movie The Final Destination, I will still take heed to those subtle hints that allow me to dance and run through life.

Do you have premonitions or gut feelings? 

Share! For I would just love to read all about them!