An unusual dream...successfully running a marathon

 I regularly have dreams that I'm running a marathon, but I can't find the start, get diverted off the course and loose my way, or can't complete complicated sections. I never finish.

I didn't finish the race last night either...I woke up right after another fast runner told me I had four miles to go and I was beginning to tire.  I had made a few mistakes, but in each case they resulted in shortcuts, so at that point I was doing well and running in the front the the thin crowd of sub-3 hour runners.  Mostly men.  I don't believe I've ever had a dream of successfully running a race before...and in this case even my mistakes allowed me to move farther ahead in the event, when I saw the correct course in front of me and rejoined the pack.

I was passing runners still, though I was slowing.  I was making jokes about the difficult parts of the course (there were climbing sections and portions with deep mud and wild animals that looked like dogs with short legs.  There were netted sections and part of the course ran through an elementary school so you had to avoid the kids while trying to figure out which classroom hall the course was following.)

I remained fast and unencumbered, though I started to pick up items I found that attracted me.  I was carrying something in my right arm when I woke up...perhaps a soccer ball?  Not sure. It was wrapped in a cloth bag.

Wouldn't it be nice if this was my dream life running the awake David clear of my toxic ex-wife.  Or some other albatross, like the potential sale of my beautiful home in NYC that I wrote about earlier before I fell asleep.  How nice to have a moment to run free in my dreams, fast and easy, like I once did (though I never broke 3 hours!).