Category: Running

Almost Last

I hate running in the heat. But Trey and I did it yesterday for 8 hours at Hot 2 Trot in Canton, Ga. The first 10 miles were easy. After that it was a bit of a street fight turned dance party when we got the big blue tooth speaker out. We ended up at the bottom of the pack on total laps, but we definitely had the most fun -so I like to think we won in the ways that matter most. Over 8 hours we threw the football to strangers, danced, talked about how Rumi tied with reincarnation and Ecclesiastes, periodization in training and life, transcendence, vulnerability and pain – oh, and we ate some pretty amazing donuts. Get out and do something hard. Suck at something. Suffer a little. Do it with friends. Make new friends.

Running Cades Cove

Cades Cove is a “limestone window” valley tucked against the eastern edge of Tennessee. The Thunderhead Ridgeline on the south and the Rich Ridgeline to the north form a jagged crown around the lush green valley floor. A narrow 11-mile road rings the valley, connecting 18th century homesites, graveyards, and churches like rusty jewels. All of it blurred into a watercolor haze by the omnipresent smoke of a million trees, exhaling a thick blue fog. It hangs like incense in a cathedral, lifting the prayers of the faithful up to heaven.

And every Wednesday in the summer, that cathedral opens its doors. The NPS closes the loop road to cars, and for the day it becomes a playground for hikers, runners, and bikers. Trevor and I had to see it for ourselves. We were not disappointed.

Running Lessons

Running Lessons is a training partner disguised as a book. My good friend Tim Kozik put together 140 days of motivational quotes and personal reflections to accompany the traditional 140 days in a 20-week ultramarathon training plan. So on those mornings when your legs are ready but your head is not, you have something short waiting for you before it’s go-time.

Many of the lessons of the book focus on action and courage. Which is interesting — because I run out of fear. Fear of backsliding into the hooligan I was prior to finding running in US Army basic training. Before scientists studied running and found that it was more effective than Ritalin for ADHD and Prozac for depression. I run to quiet the dark passenger. And I am not the only one. We travel in packs. Leaving warm beds and families. Pulling into still moonlit parking lots. Huddled in small groups, shivering because we are underdressed for stillness in the winter, while we wait for latecomers. And then we are gone. And the darkness and the woods wrap their arms around us and we flow together under the halos of headlamps through forests and mountains that were ancient when this nation was born. Together we transcend through motion and become one with the source. It is on the fire of this forge that fear is tempered into courage.

This forge is where you are going. But in the beginning, you may need a book like this to help you find the way.