Running Naked

I did the unthinkable this morning.
I ran.
With no music.

No buds in my ears.
No soundtrack to cover the sound of my footfalls.
No melodic voices to smother the "to do" list formulating in my head.

It was nice.  Peaceful.  Fast.

I generally will not run if my Shuffle isn't charged.
I've been known to start out on a run and turn around less than 100 yards later if the iPod runs out of charge.  Really.  I have done that.  Priorities.
I just have never really run without an accompanying playlist.
I have special attachments on my earbuds so they won't fall out while I run.
I have even gone so far as to arrange my songs by "bpm", or beats per minute, so that my pace will increase/decrease at certain points along the run, which seems to help me get a little more mileage.
The music is motivating.

This morning though, at 5am, I headed out the door naked (metaphorically, you know, without the music; it was 5am in November, so yeah, I did have running pants, a wicking long-sleeved shirt, a gore-tex jacket, ear warmers, a hat, and gloves; but naked mentally).

I was surprised by so many things.  Not just that I could run naked (with no music).  Eeew. I just re-read that part.  I'll find another metaphor.  Sorry everyone.  Try to get that mental image out of your head.  Please.  Pretty please.

Anyway.  I found out some things.
I  can run three miles with no music.
And I ran faster than I normally do.  And the run went by more quickly (which, I guess, makes sense if you are running faster than you normally do).

Without the music, I thought about things and people and places.  My mind wandered.  It was easy to get lost in my own head.  I wasn't waiting for a song to end, or anticipating what song would be next, or fiddling with my Shuffle to get to a certain song.  I was just moving my feet, listening to the steady sound of my breathing.  It's very calming to notice that your legs and your lungs can work in unison, increasing and decreasing speed in response to one another.  It makes you feel very in tune with your body.

I noticed details in my neighborhood (you can take down those Halloween lights now).  I heard sounds that are usually drowned out by Coldplay and Kelly Clarkson (lots and lots of very communicative birds in our area).  And while I cannot explain why, for some reason without headphones funneling Bruno Mars into my ears my sense of smell was much keener.  On a crisp fall morning, if you're paying attention, the air smells like camping and the beach and Christmas all rolled together.  I just never noticed that before.

It was very dark.  I don't want to say the darkness was disorienting, because I was just running a one mile loop over and over again, so it wasn't like I was going to get lost.  But it was kind of like the blackness made me less aware of where I was, which made me less aware of how far I'd gone, and less aware of how far I had yet to go.  The darkness concealed the distance, in a way.  In a good way.

I think I'll try it again tomorrow morning.

I'm going to run... how do I phrase this so no one gags... with my senses available.