Life Without Running

Two simple words but pretty important to how I’m attempting to live life now. In my last post I wrote about a trip I took to check out a race location for a race I entered that is still three months away. Realistically I can’t guarantee I could even do a race this weekend much less in November but by scheduling that far out, I’m trying to set and have goals. So by keep trying I mean that I’m going to try to continue doing races and going places and hopefully taking another cross country trip with Charlie next month.  On Tuesday, the 8th, I drove to a place called Fern Ridge Lake where Smitty said they were camping. I didn’t have any goals other than getting off the property and taking a short day trip to somewhere different. I didn’t find the Smiths but it was still a nice day drive. I signed up to do the Oregon Track Club’s Monthly race at Dorris Ranch in Springfield on Wednesday knowing I had to have labs done at noon and the race was at 6 so it was iffy whether I would do it or ...

This was an outstanding book for several reasons the first of which was by reading it I felt as though the author and I would have been friends if given the chance. That chance will never come because tragically the author was killed by a grizzly bear while hiking near Yellowstone National Park. There’s a sad irony to that circumstance that I’ll talk more about.  In 2015 when the author was 40 she quit her job as a high school English teacher, put things in storage and drove to Delaware to begin a walk across the country on the American Discovery Trail. The book was written as both her daily thoughts and travel journal from the road mixed in with a series of essays about her thoughts and experiences from teaching in the American public schools.  Probably the funniest essay she wrote was about the challenges of being a teacher and dealing with daily bodily functions 😂 “To be blunt, I also write from a place of professional honesty when I say that school takes its toll because...

The day after my birthday I got a video of things I had done on August 1st in the past and that was the final motivation I needed to take Charlie and head out on a day trip. Joe Brazil has been talking about trying to take a trip up here and maybe do a half marathon at some point. I got on line a while back and found a race in Silver Falls State Park. It is part of a three day series of 5 events 5k through 50k. The website said that they have sold out every year and that registration opened on August 1st so I decided to take a road trip to see if it was something that might work. It was a decent drive up I 5 to Salem and then about a 20 mile drive east to the park. I checked out the park and it was really nice although it is possible the course could offer some challenges. I sent Joe pictures as well as my thoughts and we both signed up for races on the 2nd; Joe for the half on the 5th and me for the 5k on the 3rd. I made reservations for three nights at a Motel 6 in Salem. So we’re te...