-Ralph Waldo Emerson
A busy summer turned into a busy fall and suddenly its winter without any warning...Been meaning to write a race recap from the Surf the Murph 50K but honestly there wasn't much to write about. It was dark and cold when we started, I met up with my old buddy Mitch at the start, totally expected him to dust me as I was running my third marathon plus in the past five weeks, but he was coming back from an injury and we just settled in and spend the next 6:22 keeping a steady pace, and catching up on everything that had gone on in the years since we had last seen each other.
There was never a moment of doubt about finishing, there wasn't any sort of adversity, we just settled in and rolled along happily from aid station to aid station, seeing his wife and kids from time to time, grubbing on cookies and candy, catching up on people from grade school and high school, as well as sharing stories of races run since then.
The weather couldn't have been better, beautiful sunrise, warm temps as the day wore on, soft trails, rolling hills, great convo, and it was the perfect way to wrap up a long summer of running.
Once we finished, and headed our separate ways, Mitch with his family, me up north to my good buddy's house to help him cut down trees at his new place, I had some time to reflect on the past five weeks....
Going to Chile, the whole experience, my body somehow recovering on the fly in order to run the Twin Cities, the support of the crowds, blasting from that right to work, watching the Lynx win their second WNBA Championship in three years, wrapping up the parade and trophy presentation by getting up at 430 and bombing up to my cabin with my good buddy Sparky for a quick weekend hiking and canoeing, blasting back in time to get him to the airport, then turning around to run Surf the Murph.
Whenever I feel like I am too tired to do something or too lazy, or busy, I only need to remember that stretch, riding a wave of good vibes, and adrenaline to undertake a string of adventures that seemed out of reach and make them all happen.
After spending that next day cutting down and clearing trees at my buddy's place, I decided to take the rest of the month off and start training again in December but a funny thing happened when I got home...I just felt really good and didn't feel the need for an extended recovery, instead I just kept running, sure I had some knots and soreness to work through but my body just loved the feeling of being in motion and so I kept right on rolling, and last week added up my mileage for the year shocked to find I was closing in on 1,500 miles run.
The past few years I had topped out around 1,200-1,300 and always in the back of my mind thought 1,500 would be a cool milestone but after the fall season I always just fell off and didn't get out much. But this year I was able to keep it going and now am less than 60 miles from accomplishing that goal.
I have run through everything the past 12 months, snow, rain, heat, mountains, woods, downtowns, good times, hard times, bitter cold winds, and swampy humidity, run with a clear head and a full heart as well as a full head and a heavy heart. Every step taught me something, showed me a little more about myself or my surroundings, opening my eyes to what is possible and how the only limits we have are the ones we place upon ourselves.
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