Random 85

Good ol' Coach Joe at his best here (from the HCTR listserv)

I do believe that each long run for me is a Vision Quest... for me to find a better me.

And some are a reminder of how frail and weak I am... a reminder that I am only human.

But all that really matters is that I can still GO... fast or slow, no matter... as long as I can GO.

And I wish that I could take a few old friends with me ...

Rick Gastelum, Red Spicer, Dan Keitz, my mom, and my brother to name a few.

They would love to... just GO!

I do these long runs for endless reasons....

... for that one MOMENT that defines a season.

... for that one FRIEND that I would never have met otherwise

... for that one FEELING that I cannot find elsewhere

... for that one PERSON who I have become and continue to become.

so.. send the masses and let em all come to play.

I will continue to sort em out into Good, Bad, Nice, Mean, and so on...

and wonder occasionally into which category I fall in their eyes.

but not worry about it too much

old school, new school, its just school... when you quit changing... you have died.

Life is good!

j:o)e

I need to get back to finding myself now :)

Random 81

Seriously NYT....WTF! Devoting an entire article to such nonsense. I am no fast runner myself but all these people complaining in the article are not fast runners by any twist of imagination (4 odd hours for a 26.2...give me a break...I can do that too :P). My take on this is that.....unless you are right up there in the sub 3 or 2.5 hr mark...you should be careful before you open your trap to start complaining! How do you even define how fast is fast?

While I perfectly understand the need for cut0ffs and all, one needs to understand that not everyone has a hyper-competitive streak or the physical gifts to go all out during a race to finish in a super-fast time and feeling like a pile of crap at the end of it all. Just because someone takes 6 hours to finish a marathon doesn't mean they aren't giving it their best shot. You still need to respect the distance and the effort that is needed to finish it. If anything I would say, it is probably harder for the back of packers than the gazelles at the front, simply because of the longer time they have to be on their feet.

To all the whiners I say...if you are looking for a challenge, go run an ultra ....then you will surely understand what the so-called "plodders" go through ;)

Random 69

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

(Passage from "If" by Rudyard Kipling)

What its all about

"Running should be easy, it should be fun, it should include everyone. It shouldn't be a punishment for eating cheesecake, which is what we've turned it into."

"because one thing that you will always see in ultra-races that you will never see in normal marathons are smiles. People are relaxed and enjoying the moment"

"You will not find a four-year-old on this planet who does not like to run. Why? Because they haven't been told it's a workout. "

"You get a sense of real camaraderie out there because ultimately it's about everyone pulling together."

Couldn't have said it in better words than those in this TIME interview of Chris McDougall.

Random 64

Random thought for the day comes from yet another long-winded and pointless (sometimes meandering into the macabre) discussion on how people would remember us (me and this other person I was talking to... and no it was not my alter ego) after we were long gone....what would our tombstones say (of course our designated religions preclude both of us from ever having one). But if I do end up having one by some twist of events... I think I would like to have it say something on the lines of:

"He attacked everything in life with a mix of extraordinary genius and naive incompetence, and it was often difficult to tell which was which."
-Douglas Adams
:P

That's my story and I'm sticking to it

(source:flickr)

Flowchart for life

(via: The Fishbowl)

The red pill or the blue pill?

Do not try and bend the spoon. That's impossible. Instead... only try to realize the truth.
What truth?
There is no spoon.
There is no spoon?
Then you'll see, that it is not the spoon that bends, it is only yourself
Huh? Reel to real...thats what it is.