After the Run

One overslept morning with no time for a real breakfast unraveled far more than Owen expected, showing him how much his after run routine was quietly holding together.

The same eggs and toast that get eaten in a hurry on a weekday morning feel entirely different when there is nowhere to be, and Owen has noticed the gap grows every year.

A coworker’s offhand comments about how Owen looks some mornings, freshly showered and alert, or occasionally wrecked, say more about the after run routine than Owen usually means to reveal.

For a short window right after finishing a run, Owen’s head goes unusually still. It never lasts, and he has finally stopped expecting it to.

Between stepping through the front door and logging into a work laptop there is a short, oddly specific routine Owen relies on to turn into someone who looks like he has been awake for hours.

Toast, eggs, and whatever fruit is around: the breakfast Owen eats after nearly every run stopped being a choice years ago and became something closer to a ritual.