Stop The Madness

The month is rounding the corner toward the close and now one twelfth of this new year is behind us. Time is such a fleeting thing, it is here for a while and we live in the moment, then with speed of exhaling breath it has passed and we find ourselves in the future. Capturing the most of every minute is a great goal for a living pattern. If we can manage to hold onto each instant as if it where the last thing we would ever do life would have so much substance and fulfillment.

Sadly, we would still have to do those things we don't really want to do or enjoy, but we would have a greater appreciation for the little things in life. Those moments of just hanging out with those we love, sitting and watching a bird flutter above a tree in a waning sunset, or driving a car down the road, even in rush hour traffic. It is all a perspective thing and if we live life to the fullest, we should be able to take those things that cause frustration and turn them inside out and create something new out of them. Life is too short to be spent frustrated on trivial matters. And if we can master turning the mundane into uplifting meditative moments, then we have time and potentially renewed energy for using our spare time to explore the wonders of the world around us. For this is a great place and no amount of lifetimes would allow you to see and do everything there is to do and see, but if we don't give it a try we miss out on so much.

With that I will stop rambling. The month has closed and I was able to reach several of my personal running goals this month. I have found a renewed energy through the sport of running and even if you cannot run per say, getting out and getting the blood flowing through your body will do the same thing for you. Just moving about on the planet should bring a better sense of health and vitality. Eventually you will come to need the time of running/walking/strolling about the green marble that is the earth. I do it for the exercise and the peace of mind that it brings. I have to say thank you to my friend and coach Ole as he is the evil man who planted this whole running seed in my head. When I met him I laughed at running as a "pleasurable" activity. To run for fun was akin to smashing your hand with a hammer just to experience the pain of it, twisted and sick.

Step forward almost a year (as I have only been running for a bit less than a year now) and I find myself completely hooked on this crazy running thing and even stranger, the distances are the most intriguing part of it. A long run just has something about it that can't be explained and the results can't be attained any other way. So I call myself crazy and keep on keeping on. I don't think I will ever attempt an ultra marathon, but I do think I will keep at the 26.2 run for a while. A half marathon is actually a really good distance, it is not too difficult and doesn't cause the mental and physical pain of the full 26.2 mile run. I am working up to this summer's Mayor's Midnight Sun Marathon, which I ran for the first time last year and had thought prior to it that 26.2 miles is a completely unreachable distance. My goal is a cut an hour from the time I had last year. Seeing as I have only run that distance once in my life there is a good chance I could beat the time, but an hour shorter is a lofty goal. So here's to training and what the future has in store.

I played an hour of racquetball today and then went to run as I needed to get one more fast run in before the close of January. With the Nike+ you can set online goals and challenges with your friends and others in the world who have the Nike+ through the Nike+ web site. I had goals of burning 4000 calories last month (easily attained early in the month), running 50 miles, and having 5 runs with an average pace of less than 10 minutes per mile. I got my fast run in and then went on to do a cool down run and Nike+ widget decided to turn itself off in the middle of my run. I ran a total of 4.02 miles today but my tracking counter only gave me credit for 2.14 miles. For some reason it turned off almost 30 minutes before I was finished.

My 4.02 miles brings me to a total 65.52 miles for the month of January. This puts me just past the offices of Matanuska Madwater, a white water rafting adventure guide service out of Chickaloon, AK. They run three rafting trips daily down the Chickaloon and Matanuska rivers. The raft trip in front of the Lion's Head on the Matanuska river is a great trip with lots of fun Class III/IV water features to make your way through. The Matanuska river has it's headwaters at the Matanuska glacier, which is located in roughly the same place as the Lion's Head. The convergence of the rivers with the glacier and the Lion's Head is a unique geological phenomenon as the Lion's Head is actually a plug in an extinct volcano. This area is really the meeting of fire and ice. I will be running by this incredible natural occurrence sometime soon and will go into further detail then.

I am currently 4899.48 miles from Davie, FL. I broke 4900 mile mark and am on my way, one step closer all the time.