Running a Little Late

Hello people to whom I always seem to address at the beginning of a blog post the issue of small size when I could start with a different introduction!

Today whilst casually strolling to the Apple store (not to buy apples, 'cause this isn't 1900, for crying out loud!) I thought to myself as I looked at my 160 GB iPod Classic: Wow. Look how shiny, glimmering, and beautiful is this marvelously extragent piece of technology!...yeah, I'm kidding. I thought I'm running a bit late. Then, it struck me quite odd that we use that phrase. Think about it: I'm running a bit late? The italicized words are essential to communicating that we are not going to make it somewhere on time (in other words, "I'm late") You could exclude the "a bit" part, and you still have the word "running" which causes confusion to erupt in my brain. Is this phrase perhaps a shortened version of "I'm running [because I'm] late" where the bracketed words disappeared? Or perhaps "[Time is] running; [I'm] late" dropped and rearranged itself into the three-word phrase "I'm running late"?

I then posed this conclusion: The phrase "I'm running late" might have meant "I'm 'running' late". Do you see what I mean? When I say "I'm running late", perhaps I intend to communicate with specificity the "degree of lateness" accompanying my arrival. I think someone grew bored of saying "I'm late" and decided "I'm very late" or any other adjective synonymous to "very" would not do, and so they decided to let people know that they were so late that they needed to run into "I'm running late".

I'm no linguist, but this explanation satisfactorily solves the puzzle for me. So the next time you are late, use a colorful descriptor related to the mode by which you will arrive.
"Sorry man, but I'm teleporting late for the meeting we planned..."