Most of the time I never remember my dreams, and most of the time I wish I did, especially the dreams in which I’ve written a good song. That was a good one! How did that melody go again?
Now and then, I get some weird vivid dreams that come out of nowhere and I wonder, where the hell did that come from and what does that even mean?
My last extremely vivid dream was last week and it involved running a race, and it went something like this…
I was under my 10 x 10 canopy looking through my drop bag at a desert race. It could’ve been Javelina Jundred or some other hot desert race. Nobody was around. It was just me switching things out of my hydration pack and refilling my water.
I ran out into the hot sun and as I reached the end of the dirt, I looked across the pavement to the other side (there is a road crossing at Javelina so this makes me think maybe I was there) and as I did I noticed a coyote, and then I realized it was a wolf and with two actual coyotes just behind it.
I was about to take a photo of them, but realized I didn’t have my phone with me so I ran back to my canopy tent which wasn’t too far from where I was, and I may or may not have had shoes on. I think I did but I remember looking down at one point and I don’t think I had any on in that moment.
I don’t even recall if I grabbed my phone because the next thing I knew I was running in what appeared to be some amusement park. It was an all-wooden, brown amusement park that looked like everything was made with giant popsicle sticks.
I could see the giant wooden Ferris Wheel with the wooden carousel next to it, and families eating at wooden picnic tables as I ran past them.
I ended up on some grassy area with a timing mat that I needed to cross. However, the timing mat wasn’t flat. It looked like a small black storage trunk. I could see the metal tabs and lining on it. Sort of like those huge cases that house instruments and equipment at concerts, except smaller ones.
At first, I didn’t know I had to step on and over it, so I decided to go around it, and the guy with the light brown hair wearing a white t-shirt with some indistinguishable image on it, who was sitting at the timing table right next to it, told me “Uh uh, you need to go over it.”
So I walked back around it and said “Pardon me” to the other runners who were waiting in line to step onto this box. They needed to wait their turn while I stepped onto and over this box, and after I did, I asked, “OK where do I go now?”
The guy turns slightly to his right and points around with his blue pen in the direction of “follow the ribbons that way.”
I see pink ribbons and take off running where the green grass disappears and it looks like I’m running inside some wooden structure up a long ramp that turns into a fork in the road.
By the way, I should add, that I don’t see any other runners besides the ones I cut in front of, back at the timing box/mat, and I don’t see any other ribbons. All the ribbons and markings disappeared.
I stand there looking to the right and the left. Where do I go? I have no idea. I suppose I should just pick a side so I choose to go right.
When I go to the right side, the ramp goes down and I end up running through all these tables where people are eating and laughing and enjoying themselves I see amusement park games nearby, and I don’t see any markings.
This doesn’t seem right, I tell myself. I turn around and see another female runner so I make my way back towards where the split was, and as I get closer I notice she’s asking an older gentleman who works there, which way to go.
When I reach him, I ask him the same thing and he says, “You go up and straight down.”
I take off and make a sharp right turn to the left side. The left side I should’ve chosen first.
I run up the ramp and wonder, where did that girl go? She took off like a wild banshee and I couldn’t even see her.
There were no ribbons, no course markings, and nobody around me, and as I reached the end of the ramp, I entered a hallway and ran down in a square of about 4 flights of stairs.
When I reached the bottom, there were three doors all lined up and I chose the second, or middle door.
I end up outside and standing right there is Maria Menounos. You mean, of all people I could have in my dream it’s Maria Menounos? I couldn’t even have Chris Evans, or Idris Elba, or Keanu Reeves in my dream. I mean, I suppose it could’ve been worse than Maria, but where did she come from? The last time I saw her I think was at the movies sometime last year where she talked about new things coming to entertainment before the film begins.
I didn’t have time to analyze why she was there because when I saw her, I was outside in the hot sun, and I was back in the dirt, and I was upset.
She asked me, “What’s wrong?”
As I started to cry, I told her, “I have no idea where I’m going. There are no ribbons. There are no course markings. I’m lost and I’m tired. I just don’t even know where I am.”
She just looked at me as I kept shaking my head with tears in my eyes. And after I turned to my left to look up and see the trail off in the distance, I woke up.
Now, I don’t know if this race was Javelina. I don’t know if this dream stems from anxiety over big races because I don’t even know how long the race in my dream was. It could be how I’m feeling subconsciously about where I am in life in general.
All I know is, this was a dream, and I’m glad it was just a dream.
Thank you for reading.