Sneakers and Wine

One of my earliest memories as a child is going with my father to the track early in the morning and what I have over the years remembered as the Good Morning Birds.  I was very young, not more than four years old.  I didn’t want to go because I thought I’d be bored.  My father told me if I was good, I’d get to see these special birds wake up and fly out of the pond that sat just beyond the fencing of the track. It must have seemed exciting to me at the time because I went along with my father and I clearly recall being happy about it.  The sun had not yet completed it’s ascension to usher in the new day  and the sky was painted in colors of yellow and pinks and purples and navy.  I chased my father around the track and then stopped at the final turn where the pond was.  I pressed my face hard against the chain link fence, looking through to the pond and only saw a green layer of slime and some lily pads.  It was still and silent.  Nothi...

Today was the last mile of my daily winter warrior challenge of running at least one outdoor mile every day. Sometimes, a lot of the time actually, I ran with at least one friend, conversation making some of those colder and darker runs seem to fly by.  And sometimes, I ran alone, enjoying the quiet but usually on the days I run alone, I think.  I think about everything from my to do lists to grocery lists to the workouts coming up to organizing the kids and work.  My brain stays busy focusing on all the other areas of my life while I mindlessly breathe and place one foot in front of the other.    Today, being the last official day of my personal challenge, I wanted to run alone.  I wanted to do something today with this 90th mile that I rarely do.  I wanted to intentionally stop thinking and be. I wanted to savor every step of this last mile. I wanted to not reflect on anything or make any lists.  This was harder than I thoug...

 My initial intention was to publish this post last Saturday during the snowstorm, but I found I needed to allow my thoughts of this particular run to settle and allow the words to come instead of forcing and searching for expressing all I wanted to express in this post.... A few weeks ago, I saw a post for a Winter Warrior Challenge.  The challenge entailed running or walking at least one outdoor mile for the month of January.  Today will be Day 43 for me of this challenge.  I made a commitment to extend that challenge through the duration of winter.  I began the challenge running the first few days in shorts in New England!  And then there have been days  I’ve worn so many layers I felt like a snowman trying to run with hand-warmers stuffed in my gloves and a hood tied over my hat.  Often, I am blessed with a friend willing to meet me at 5 am to run this mile in the dark and cold before our crossfit class.  No matter how muc...

Today, on this last day of 2015, I had a goal I set earlier this year that was still unaccomplished.  I knew when I woke up,  today could not end without meeting this goal I committed to.  I had worked hard but kept falling just short of meeting it.  I started this year unable to complete a legit pull up.  After months of linking 2-3, sometimes 5 on a good day, together, I had set a goal to link 10 together.  Over the past few weeks I’ve come close, hitting 8.  But today, I went in fiercely focused on achieving this goal.  After a long time of staring at the bar and warming up, one of the coaches came up to me, seeing my hesitation,  and said, “Remember being a kid and this was just fun? Just have fun!” And then I did it! Twice! But the best part was the people.  All these people that have fallen into my life this past year, friends who just happened to be there sharing in my excitement because meeting goals just feels good!...

On Thursday morning, I ran a Thanksgiving road race in my town.  It is one of those races I run each year just for the fun and energy it gives to me when I show up.  I love the tradition of starting Thanksgiving morning with a number of my friends and spending five miles worth of strides being thankful.  In all honesty, on this particular course, with it’s gentle inclines and beautiful coastal scenery, it is more difficult to not be thankful.   For this race, I have my own tradition of picking up race bibs for my friends and delivering them the night before the race.  I have been doing it for years and I really enjoy it.  It’s a little thing I do that really seems to be appreciated and being able to help in just a small way, the friends in my life whom have helped me  so much, even new friends, it’s my way of demonstrating my gratitude for the friendships and blessings of my life. In the past five years, Thanksgiving has proved to be a ...

Yesterday I ran one of my favorite 5K races.  It falls on my birthday weekend every year and I’ve found it’s a great way to begin the process of mentally reviewing the progress and growth of the past year.  It’s my baseline, my starting point since I have run this race every year since my divorce.  And I always discover, in some way, that my life again has shifted forward.    I love the way things like birthdays and end of year holidays often cause us to reflect, glance, not stare,  in our rearview to see where we came from while we continue forward.  And today when I glanced in mine, all those ugly, broken, painful,  moments were gone. At least the ugliness of those moments were gone because I realized that every single moment, every challenging hill to climb brought me to where I am right now, making me who I am and without all of it, I would not be who and how I am today.   For years I felt I had been handed a very unfair...

I recently began running regularly again.  By running, I mean those long silent runs with just me.  I had forgotten the peace I find in the miles I run, the sweat equity of moving farther and farther through to wherever I am going.  Recently when I run, I seldom know which way I am going to go until I am there.  I like the idea of just going which ever way feels best in that moment on that day.  On these runs, I'm not running for speed or time or distance.  I'm running for peace of mind, for the centering of my soul.  I was thinking as I was running yesterday of this post I had written about a year ago. How could I not seeing the spectacular and vibrant oranges and reds of the leaves against the cloudless blue sky?   I've decided to repost it because as I re-read what I had written, I feel its significance remains true to today but the stories, the leaves are the stories and leaves from my past year which I must now leave behind.  It's t...