Keep Trying!
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.
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 not. It was still 83 degrees at race start but I did the mile and Smitty showed up and did the 5k. We both won our age groups despite my time being slow as hell and I wasn’t even the only person in my age group. It was questionable whether I had the energy to do the race or not right up until the time I left to do it. No matter how hard it is to do even the shortest races now I still enjoy the total experience of being around the running community. Oh yeah, and the lab results, no improvement, a little worse as a matter of fact.
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 not. It was still 83 degrees at race start but I did the mile and Smitty showed up and did the 5k. We both won our age groups despite my time being slow as hell and I wasn’t even the only person in my age group. It was questionable whether I had the energy to do the race or not right up until the time I left to do it. No matter how hard it is to do even the shortest races now I still enjoy the total experience of being around the running community. Oh yeah, and the lab results, no improvement, a little worse as a matter of fact.
While waiting for my blood draw I started a book that I picked up in the used section of the Capitan, New Mexico Library used section. It is a history of early “conquests of Mt Rainer” and I didn’t have to get many pages in before I know I wouldn’t be reading it. But like I’ve found so many times you never know when you might read something that hits the mark. In the foreword the author of the original work was quoted as saying, he “had no wish to go again to the top, one plodding step after another, with parched lips and a little nagging headache because my gasping lungs and trip-hammering heart couldn’t keep up the supply of oxygen”. No pun intended but the quote almost took my breath away because it sounded like how I feel doing even the shortest of races now!
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What’s next? Can’t even guess. Hoping to leave the day after my treatment on August 31st for an east coast trip by way of St. Louis. For now it’s getting through the current heat wave and smoke from wildfires.
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