Bouncing back

This morning's run was a success: almost no headache, manageable muscle tightness in the neck and back, and a still-owie hip but I've decided that's just a bunch of bruised cellulite jiggling together, so tough noogies.

All this angst over running seems a bit silly, though. In the grand scheme of things, whether or not I can run 20 minutes or 20 days, or whether I have a few bumps and bruises is really quite trivial. A whole lot of people are having to deal with a whole lot of very serious issues. This run is nothing. Well, not really nothing. It is my dream, and that's the point.

Why spend however many years on this planet if you cannot dream and pursue those dreams? I've been running regularly since 1978. Very near the beginning of that running career I read a book about a trans-America run and the seed was planted. I've always enjoyed road trips all over the country and, since a child, I've loved sightseeing on foot. As my love affair with running continued to grow through the years and as I approached the time when I could retire from CU, I began to think that I might actually be able to spend the time to do a cross-country run. A couple of years ago a running buddy mentioned a friend of his who had run across the country at age 60 (read about it in "In the Long Run" by Annabel Marsh) and I told AndyE that a cross-country run was something I'd always wanted to do, I just hadn't figured out from where-to-where. Then I started tossing out ideas when out from my mouth came "...or I could run from here to Petoskey..." And there you have it!

Then it just became a matter of planning: when is the earliest I could actually be ready to pursue such a quest; how much time will I need to train; how do I bring my family around to this idea; what route; what will I need; etc., etc. Just another project for this project manager. But oh so exciting. An ordinary person pursuing a maybe not quite so ordinary dream.

We all have them, dreams. With a little luck, a bit of gumption, and a large helping of stubborn sprinkled with optimism each of us can pursue our dreams.....and wake up smiling - a good thing for this world of ours.