It's hard to believe the amount of minutia it takes to pack for this trip. Between the gear, nutritional items, warm clothes, cold clothes, workshop and business materials, reading materials, personal items it feels like moving the 7th Army. It was hard to sleep last night. An old theme came back into my dreams, of being out on the roads or trails...running...this time making a stop at an encampment where my first thought was, wow I'd like to be in a place just like this...as I passed orchards, gardens, greenhouses, green houses...a country oasis on the road between urbanization. And lo and behold the people there knew me! I found it only slightly odd that I didn't recognize them but it didn't seem to matter, I was apparently a regular visitor, and a call went out to see who wanted to run on with me. Again, this struck me as novel, but not to them. Two women, who seemed to be mother and daughter? with flaming red hair prepared to move out with me...in the back of mind I kept thinking 'this is apparently normal' LOL...somewhere not here in my regular life.
I woke before the alarm. It felt good to know that some ancient endeavor brings me close to this current adventure; that something seeped deep into my psychic makeup is made for long hauls, long treks, long runs, taking the message, carrying the news, connecting the communties of souls. Runners as free agents. Runners as secret shamans. In Born to Run, the Tarahumara turn out to be the Indians Carlos Castaneda studied in Mexico, but called them Yaquis to preserve their secrecy. The secret to running then is apparently the same as everything else; it's a spiritual path, and you commit to it the same way as any other practice. You learn from master teachers, you conquer your fears. You find the immutable core of yourself which is not moving when moving, which is moving when not moving. You make the leap into your life, and you don't second quess. You own the internal space you inhabit and let your feet and your heart lead the way.
It will be fascinating and fun to chronicle this adventure. Stay tuned. Doors are flying open everywhere. If you listen through these words, these images, you may find your own right mindedness cooking up new possibilities and big dreams. So dream BIG. Go for your heart's desire. And know the Universe is standing behind you putting the wind at your back, whether you know it or not.
See you in DC!
2 comments:
The elites that say they run 100+ the week before the marathon are just trying to sand bag the competition at our expense. With you're mileage you should do much better than 6 hours. Have an easy week, don't run the day before. Heal. I'm running only 25 Miles a week, track, long, tempo, and hills, mostly quality workouts. I ran the A1A 30K Traing run Sunday at an 8:30 pace(~ 2:38) (that sucks, but I'm 60)after a slow start. At our level recovery is as important as weekly mileage. Rest up, Have a great mcm, go for 4 hours!
runnerjs
i very much appreciate your response and sound advice and you are most definitely right about the rest and recovery! I have had an easy week for sure....although your time expectation is probably out of my realm and reach, I hope to surprise myself with something respectable. This may be the last race I do for awhile....at least before miami...Good luck with your running!! and thanks again.
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