A slow train coming...

It’s been a long time since I’ve posted on here… yep… I’ll get to that. 

Let’s start with the reason I’m posting now….. 

I’ve had a lot going on since the last post on here. Too many much things to count. Though, I’ve been engulfed in my running life. The issue is, I’ve been standing still. Literally. I haven’t run more than, to “right over there” in well over a month. Probably a little longer actually. I can’t really explain why. I’ve had a lot of these moments getting in the way. Moving, working new hours, different jobs, traveling, being a little out of sorts. 
It’s funny because the entire time I’ve been doing this “non running” my life has been still surrounded by runners. I watched a group of runners head out for an Ultra run that my wife and I set up for them. The next day I went out and ran the course, but that was work, not running. I’ve set up a timing rig and timed at least 2 or 3 races with over 500 people each and watched them run across the finish line. I’m not sure when I stopped but I just stopped running. 

So, the point. I’ve been still involved, having people ask me how to get faster, or what they should do in certain situations. .I’ve given them all the normal answers, nothing new. Though, I’ve found myself not doing any of the things that I’ve suggested. I started working new hours as a barista at Starbucks in a new store. Going through the normal introductions and things running came up. Someone talked about them running and I mentioned that I do as well. One 5k, led to another and soon enough we were talking about distances, so I said something about 100 miles. They asked me the normal question “ How do you just run for 100 miles?” I told them I just did.. there wasn’t much thought involved in it. I love running and I really enjoyed being out there for the whole time. Then I started talking about the 3 times I did it. I felt myself get amped. I felt like I was talking about something REALLY exciting. I felt like I was an old man reminiscing about high school football days. It kind of hit me that though I’m not an old man, I’ve acted that way. I’ve given up. I’ve let “this life thing”  get in the way of my running. That was never the case for me. I was always the person that found time to run, whether it meant getting up and getting out before most people even were close waking up, or running at night after my daughter went to sleep. I was out. I’d hit the streets, the trail, the bridle paths, it didn’t matter. So long as I was out there. I couldn’t NOT run, It was my mediation. My life line. Not only that, but its’ the connection between my wife and I. We sit down at dinner and talk about pace, upcoming races, workouts, ideas, pipe dreams of running the entire AT together. 

This realization didn’t come easy. I was out with a few friends and we were standing outside talking. They all were smoking, and I stood there, just talking. The next morning at work, I received a text from my wife. “Are you smoking?” When I read that, I realized that I needed to change. Explanation -  I am ok hanging out with people that smoke, I quit almost 6 years ago now. I have no desire to smoke. I used running to get over that urge, that and the fact that I want to run around with my daughter’s kids too. ( She’s only 8 so I have to stay healthy for a while.) So when my wife asked that I realized that I’ve gone far down a path that she would possibly even think that me smoking is a possibility. Now after that night, I said “I’m going to go run tomorrow” Did I? Nope. Why? That damn life thing again. So fine, not a big deal, I’ll go the next day. Nope, Soon it was a week. It’s just rough those first steps are the hardest. especially because I’m in a new town now. So whereas You’d think I’d want to go out and explorer, I’m really far away from trails. So the normal, hit the road and go run this 4 mile loop because you need to run, isn’t as easy. It’ should be and that’s a crappy excuse. 

Ok so enough negative nancy…this is why I’m here. 

I love my friends. ALL of you. Seriously. Yesterday I was asked to go out and run an 8 ish mile loop to scope out a course for a local 15k. I went with a friend named David. He prefaced the run with the normal stuff I hear “ I know I”m a lot slower than you, I’m sorry” I’ve written about how I just love to run, and don’t care about pace when running with others. I explained how it’s been a while. Still throughout the run on this beautiful trail that I had NO idea was even there ( only about 15 miins away from my new place, David kept apologizing for “slowing me down.” Little did he know. Perhaps the reason, he was going so slow, is because he was pulling me. It was the first time I’d been out in a long time and it was because of him I was out there. I loved it. It was a cold snowy morning, my legs thanked me over and over and over, my lungs snapped back to using air as a machine, rather than just opening and closing to keep me alive. My brain shut off, my eyes were able to adjust to their normal use, not their over stimulated by LCD screen, mode. It was wonderful. Then I came home and read blogs from all of my facebook friends. Reading about people who just ran their first 50mile, or people who just finished up running around a 1 mile loop for 24 hours. I looked at their pictures and it was wonderful. 

And finally.... Hopefully I'll be able to continue my runs and enjoying myself while I'm out there. So thank you David, and I'm sorry for slowing YOU down. Thank you to those that let me read your runs. Thank you to all of you who have connected with me someway over the past few years. A piece of parting advice... Never ever turn down a run with someone. No matter how slow or fast you think they are.