Long-Term Goal: Be Around To Run Long Term

Jan. 11, 2013

Today I am 192.4 pounds of rolling thunder. Obviously, whatever gremlin that had crawled inside and was pushing the numbers up the other day has since been exorcised.

Today's Runner's World magazine quote of the day is one worth holding on to:

"My long-term goal is to be around to run long-term."

Jeremy Dobrick

I think we should all pledge an oath to be around long enough to live our lives, running and not running, long-term. That day you wake up on the wrong side of the grass will be sad indeed. So pledge to stay running and living as long as you can.

Today, I got back to running thanks to ice, heat, rest and medication. After a week of walking and indoor bike riding it was good to have that running feeling again. It was good to draw in deep breaths of a runner and let them go. It was good to feel my heart rate elevated in the way only strenuous exercise can do.

It wasn't the greatest run ever, but for an hour I was able to get my legs and arms moving in something of a rhythm for the first time in a week or so. Sure, there were some sore moments, but it felt good to push through and get a good run/walk in.

It was nice to feel the cool breeze on my face and the sweat rolling down my back. It was good to greet other runners as they came rolling in from the other direction. It was good to have a mild day for running in the dead of winter.

So with any luck, I'll be able to have a long-term goal to be around to run long-term. Sometimes it takes being away from something to remind you how much you like it.

 "Life will break you. Nobody can protect you from that, and living alone won't either, for solitude will also break you with its yearning. You have to love. You have to feel. It is the reason you are here on earth. You are here to risk your heart. You are here to be swallowed up. And when it happens that you are broken, or betrayed, or left, or hurt, or death brushes near, let yourself sit by an apple tree and listen to the apples falling all around you in heaps, wasting their sweetness. Tell yourself you tasted as many as you could."

Louise Erdrich