The following article was written by Christian Griffith, a member of the Georgia Ultrarunning and Trail Running Society. He already has over a dozen marathon or longer races scheduled for this year alone.

You can read more about him at his blog, run100miles.com

Can you relate?

I just got back into town, and I’m rushing around, my wife’s rushing me around, I gotta buy printer ink, I’m sore, easily aggravated, and thinking about a million different things a minute …and all at once.

Car stereo’s loud, but I’m not listening. Too consumed with a cross between suburban living and post-race family responsibility catch-up.

As one of many errands, I”m rushing through the busy technology circle, headed to Office Max… when…

Ducks.

There’s a posse of ducks that live on this lake in the middle of technology circle, and when it rains, they cruise around looking for food (I think), oblivious to all the traffic and normal goings-on, and just mosey across the various busy streets in little groups.

Two ducks were crossing the street.

Just a’takin’ their sweet ol’ time.

One of ’em bent down and pecked at something on the street, found it interesting, and decided to continue for awhile.

And there I sat, in my giant, gas-hog Excursion, 35 feet away from a bustling, 55 mph parkway intersection, and frozen in my tracks until the ducks decided I was going to continue my day.

That simple, momentary and voluntary powerlessness reminds me of how I feel when I’m ultrarunning.

The stark contrasts I experience between daily life, and spending 12 hours running in solid rain, through mounds of mud, with weekend friends, is pretty damn cool.

Ultrarunning is life’s interruption – my time to stop and “smell the roses”.

The ducks finally moved, and I resumed life’s conveyor belt.