On a whim I decided to run a 15k, but have not put in the base miles or workouts to merit such an idea. I should preface I still call myself an avid runner and average four days per week of running, but they are not training runs or significant distances. With only three and half weeks to race day I decided to try anyway. I needed a reading companion during this quick training period. Something to remind me of this love affair, ignite the fire within and get me pounding the pavement, traversing the trails further and longer each run.
George Sheehan's son describes his father's work Running & Being as the voice of a movement. In 1978 Sheehan's book was published and to my surprise his observations, foreshadowing ideas and devotion to the sport of running resonates today. He also offers something for the non-runner: running is the object of his affection/affliction but the prose deepens and applies to life and living out your best self. His son explains, "At 45, 2 years after the birth of his last child, he started running again. He began with a simple goal: to run a 5-minute mile. A year later, he completed the first of what would be 21 consecutive Bostons and more than 60 marathons overall. Aging is a myth, he argued, and showed it by posting his personal best 3:01 in his 61st year. And that sub-5 minute mile? He became the first 50-year-old to do it, running 4:47 in 1969."
I am near completion of Sheehan's work and my highlight section is lengthy. It seems every other page I am having a big moment, a great big Oprah moment. Two things amaze me most, first that I am just now discovering this read and second that a male physician-philosopher-runner in the late 1970's can relate to me without sounding incredibly sexist, narcissistic or condescending. Rather I have felt connected, free and hopeful throughout the reading process. Here are a few of the most notable passages/quotes I feel compelled to share.
**Man is meant to be a success. Each of us is unique and endowed with potentials unlike those of others. Success comes in finding your authentic self, the person you truly are, and becoming that person, tapping all of that untapped potential.**
**Given the choice, most of us would give up the reality of today for the memory of yesterday or the fantasy of tomorrow. We desire to live anywhere but in the present.
But for those active in mind and heart and body, the child and the poet, the saint and the athlete, the time is always now. They are eternally present. And present with intensity and participation and commitment. They have to be.**
**If you think that life has passed you by, or even worse, that you are living someone else's life, you still can prove the experts wrong. Tomorrow can be the first day of the rest of your life. All you have to do is to follow Thoreau. Inhabit your body with delight, with inexpressible satisfaction; both its weariness and its refreshments.**
Coupled with my regular yoga practice (which I believe has kept me injury-free and much stronger during long runs), Running & Being: The Total Experience is taking me to the starting line this weekend with a fresh perspective and every reason to believe I am not done yet. The affair continues, I love it way too much to stop now.
Yours in running,
Megan
No comments:
Post a Comment