Last night, I took off on my first neighborhood adventure since returning from Gasparilla.  And that wasn’t by choice.  Over two weeks of being sidelined by the flu really took its toll.  I knew I needed to get out last night — it was a rare 86° degree night! — but, I also knew I needed to take it easy, given what my body had been through since the beginning of the month.

After work, I pulled my running shoes on, and set out on one of my 5k courses.  I was surprised at how easy it came — must be like riding a bike, eh? — and although it was definitely hotter than my comfort zone outside, I chugged along.

On this course, I have an option to take on a big hill on Clayton Road, or to turn around at the top of the hill, and fill in the missing distance by taking a detour on Wren Trail.  I was feeling kinda froggy, so I decided on the hill.

I’m glad I did.

It’s so very easy to take the less challenging path.  I mean, who’s gonna know?  At the end of course, it’s still 5k, right?  But yesterday, I had something to prove.  I got kicked by this illness — hard! — and I needed to show myself that while I was down for a while, I wasn’t out, and I could once again take on these kinds of challenges.

I got to my turnaround point at the bottom of the hill, looked up the hill once, staring it down, and began putting one foot in front of the other.  The next time I looked up from the sidewalk, I was almost finished climbing… and that was an awesome feeling!

And with the hill behind me, the rest of the course was relatively flat and easy.  I finished up, with a slow finishing time — but speed wasn’t the point of last night.  Last night was about finishing something I started, and continuing to fight for every mile I can!

This event benefitted the National Park Foundation. 

Race Course

At the end of the year, I always have a bucket of medals from virtual races that I just didn’t find time for during the year.  This last year was particularly bad, with injuries, cold weather and me kinda falling off the wagon a little.  This is one of those race.  Prepare for more in the coming weeks!

I’ve been a Prince fan since Purple Rain was released.  I’d heard of him before that, of course, and I enjoyed some of his later music, but there was something special about that music and that film at that time.  It was a tumultuous era for me, with girlfriends and breakups, and me beginning to lay the foundation for who I’d become as an independent adult.  I needed that music then.  I couldn’t tell ya how many times I saw the film during its first run, nor how many times I lit up the CD.  I think “a lot” comes to mind.  🙂

In fact, most of my runs start with the extended version of “Let’s Go Crazy” from the film.  It’s eight minutes of fun, and is big, bouncy, and gets my mind in the right place for getting the miles laid down.

Friday night, after work, I decided I needed to get some miles in the books.  This year has been abysmal, with no where near enough miles, and knowing that I was facing a half marathon on the near horizon, I had to get out.

Careful readers will remember that my last outing had me sporting some knee issues.  Knowing that, I put my knee brace on, and even with the cold weather, I only had one slight twinge, and that was when my brace had slipped a bit.  No biggie, and after a few minutes, I was on my way.

In truth, this was the best outing I’d had in a while, and has put me in a good frame of mind for my upcoming half in Mississippi.  But, more on that later!

This event benefitted the Fender Music Foundation.

Race Course

This past weekend marked two big anniversaries for me.

The first was the 31st anniversary of my entering the Air Force.  I was a lanky, introverted 22-year-old that had never left home, and only had a couple of jobs under my belt.  I barely had a work ethic, and certainly had never worked with any organization with the impact that the USAF had.  The impact was on me though… Joining the military was the best career move I ever made, and taught me a ton of extraordinarily valuable lessons that would shape me into the person I am today.

And forever linked at the hip to that anniversary is the anniversary of the Challenger disaster.  I can remember being at the MEPS station in Knoxville TN, watching the lift off of Challenger, and stepping away to the restroom, only to return to everyone in the room being stunned by what had transpired in those few minutes.

And then I was whisked away to Lackland AFB for basic training, and the obligatory blackout that (at that time) came with that.

None of us knew what had happened to Challenger.  There were rumors running around that it was sabotaged by the Soviets (yes, kids, there was still a Soviet Union at that time!).  Practically any rumor you could imagine was crawling among us newly minted airmen.  When we’d go to classes, we’d ask our instructors for information about the investigation, but of course, there was much to say in those first few weeks.

And in the most chilling of moments, I remember the sirens accidentally being activated across the base while we were in the dorms.  We quickly began scrambling to put mattresses in the windows to protect from whatever might be coming.  That was probably the closest I’ve come to genuinely believing I was done for.  Of course, we quickly heard that firing the sirens was an accident, and nothing was going on… but still.

So, with that as the backdrop, I selected the Captain’s Run to chase yesterday.  Marvel has brought Captain America to life in the recent films, and he’s quickly become my favorite Avenger.  He harkens back to simpler times, with a good dose of common sense, which, at times, seems to be missing nowadays.  Why not run a race inspired by him?  🙂

I started out of the house, and it was a cold 35°, with a blustery wind that just didn’t wanna quit.  Add to that a pretty good base of clouds, and it was obvious that some of the cold weather gear needed to come out with me.  However, I didn’t put on my knee brace.  Remember that — it’ll be important later.

As I usually do, I took the first half kilometer at a brisk walk to warm up, quickly deciding to stretch that to about thee-quarters km to make sure I was ready, and I started jangling my ungraceful self down the sidewalk.

And then my knee barked at me.

My left knee has been sore off an on for a couple of months.  I don’t know if there was a specific injury that’s caused the pain — nothing stupid that I’ve done comes to mind — but from time to time, it’s painful for a little bit of an outing.  The first time I remember this pain was at the turn around point for Flat as a Pancake back in September 2015.  I was going around a pylon at the turnaround, with my left leg on the outside (as I remember), and I came out of that with horrible pain.  It’s come and gone since then.

Wearing a knee brace seems to help, and with the cold weather, I should’ve worn my brace — in fact, I should probably be wearing it around the house.  I didn’t, and I’m sure that’s why I noticed this pain yesterday.  Note to self…

I got through my neighborhood course, though, enjoying the brisk temperatures, and just being outside in the showiness of nature (thanks Reverend Lovejoy!).  It was glorious, and nice to be back out there again.

Seriously, I’m gonna do more outings more frequently.  Really.  Honest!

Race Course

Here it is … the middle of January.  And this is my first run of the year.  In fact, it’s my first run in about five weeks.

And I’ve missed it.

Sometimes, life just gets in the way of running, especially this time of year.  There are holidays, birthdays, anniversaries, weather … and sometimes, a little too much real life drama.  That’s what happened with me.  Every day, I’d pledge that I was gonna go out on my neighborhood 5K tromp, and every day, something would eclipse that.  As a result, I have a box of medals for virtual races I have not yet run.  You’re gonna see some oldies that should’ve been run in 2016 float by.

But not this one.  This one was actually on-time!

The Moon Joggers group is a crazy-supportive collection of runners from all over the world, and it was with them that I first started running these virtual races.  The MJ’s are gathering in Utah this summer for the AF Canyon race (half marathon for me), renting a vacation home for a few days, and just reveling in the company of like-minded folks for a while.  I can’t wait!  This race was a fund raiser to help with some of the costs associated with the MJ presence at that race.

Like every other day for the last five weeks, I started my day with the best of intentions, thinking I’d go for a run at lunch, only to find myself staying indoors, taking in some chili.  It was cold and raw at lunch, and that ended up being the deciding factor in staying in.

Though the afternoon, I’d seen one of my Facebook running friends having a struggle with her running, and I chimed in with some of my thoughts about life, the universe, and everything.  And ya know what?  All that inspired me to run after work.

Now, it’s wintertime here in Da Lou, which means the Sun sets pretty dang early, leaving precious little daylight after work for me to cram in five kilometers of distance at my pace.  Immediately after work, I went upstairs, got changed into my running gear (including a rain slicker), and put myself outside.

It was sprinkling, and I’d intentionally gone out without music so I could listen to the world around me in the glory of the rain.  I love running in the rain, but it’s pretty easy to miss all the nuances of a gentle rainfall with earbuds plugged in.  I set out at a brisk pace, and just looked and listened as I went through the neighborhood.  I could hear thunder off in the east, and wondered if I was gonna get drenched.  (I didn’t, btw, although I did have a pretty good downpour for about five minutes.)

It was glorious.

Back on the road.  Outside again after a long winter’s nap.  And with an amazing sense of completion after so long away from the great outdoors I love so much.  It was a great run with which to begin 2017!

Race Course

I’m a soft heart.  I really am.

Over the last year, I’ve run for the shooting tragedies in Paris, Orlando and Chattanooga.  I’ve run to bring awareness and benefit to the folks suffering through a water crisis in Flint MI.  I’ve run to raise money for colon cancer awareness, cures and support.  And as always, I’ve run in honor of our military, and in remembrance of 9/11.

And now once again, I’ve run to help aid folks in distress.  This time, it’s for the folks in the Smokies, who’ve dealt with the biggest wildfire tragedy in that area in a century.

The images and videos folks have posted, especially of Gatlinburg, have been heart-wrenching.  It looks otherworldly.  The mountains there are covered in fire, looking like something out of an apocalyptic filmmaker’s story.  It just doesn’t seem possible that this is happening in east Tennessee.

When Vacation Races and Virtual Running Club sent out an email blast about this race over the weekend, I knew I had to sign up.  I needed to do something to help.  And with this race, 100% of the proceeds are going to one of four charities that are active in the area.  I chose Dolly Parton’s “My People Fund”.

Saturday, I did my miles for this race, taking things slow, as this was my first time out on trail after my calf blowout in Tulsa.  I followed my rule of petting every dog I saw, which kept my pace down.  And although I felt a little tightening in my right calf, it wasn’t too bad.  I believe I need to get out there more this week, and put a few more miles on my leg to see how I’m recovering.

And in fairness, that’s what east Tennessee is gonna do, too.  They’ll assess what’s happened, pick up the pieces, and go right back out there, doing what they do.  I know that the any resilience that I have came from being raised in that region.  It’s part of the very air there, and I know they’ll recover, and be stronger for it.

This event benefitted Dolly Parton’s “My People Fund.”

Race Course

Today was likely the last tune-up before the Route 66 races in Tulsa this weekend.  With the unseasonably warm weather (about 70° today, and close to 80° tomorrow), I’m pretty sure that anything I do is gonna feel weird when I get to Tulsa, and take on races where the temps will be closer to 30° when I start.

This was also the last of the Star Trek anniversary medals I had squirreled away.  Much like the Back to the Future anniversary last year, I hung quite a few Trek anniversary baubles from my medal shelf.  I’ve thought a couple of times about taking ’em all down — and that’s a HUGE effort — and grouping like medals together.  Maybe some day!

It was a glorious day, with loads of sunshine, and several other folks out enjoying the midday break.  I changed my route a little, and took the path down Wren Trail.  It’s been a little bit since I’ve been on that stretch of pavement, and I’d forgotten how nice it was.  At midday, there’s plenty of shade to keep you out of the sun, but still enjoy the breezes.  It was really a cleansing, refreshing time spent out in nature.

I’ve been gathering up all my goodies for the races this weekend, and as I write this, it dawned on me to see how many events I’ve done between last year’s half marathon, and this year’s.  And that number?  Seventy-four.  Seventy-four times over the last twelve months, I’ve laced up my shoes, gotten my stuff together, and headed out the door to put miles behind me, generally to the benefit of some group or another.

That may be a pretty normal cadence for more avid runners than me.  For a kid that never put the word “run” in his vocabulary until he was 48, I’m thrilled that I can still do this, and that I’ve stayed interested enough to keep picking ’em up and putting ’em down, all in the name of good causes.

This event benefitted Team Mill Hollow.

Race Course

In theory, I was supposed to run this on Election Day, but I couldn’t pull myself away from the news of the day, so I ran this a couple of days after.

I set out after work, trying to clear my head of all the awful stuff I was seeing online and in the news — so much hateful rhetoric, from any side you can think of!  With the return to standard time, the sun sets much earlier, and I was gifted with a crisp day on which to take a slow, contemplative walk.

With music in my ears, I ambled down my regular course, and really looked at what was around me.  I stopped to pet an old dog that walks the neighborhood (Elvis is his name!), and chatted with his owner.  I continued on around the neighborhood, seeing the triplet deer that we’ve been watching most of this year, and watching the Canadian geese soaring overhead.

And, ya know what … I found a little peace.

Whatever we silly ol’ humans are doing with politics — and you can make your own call about the impact of that — nature remains.  I’ll still enjoy my quiet walks and runs through God’s glorious creation, and know that no matter what happens — ugly, awful, wonderful, righteous — it’s in His hands, and I’ll just keep on plodding along, one step at a time.

Race Course