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I've come to a crossroad in my life. I can either stay here, in my current form on the 'vine, and try to do battle with the political hardheads from both sides of the aisle or I can open a new door and start to enjoy myself again while writing about it. I'm just about at my wits end with the whole political blogosphere and its incessant rants, mudslinging, and general inability to find any common ground. At the same time I am also totally burned out on trying to explain free market fundamentals, Austrian economics, the strengths of our constitutional republic, and the road back to sanity in the never ending face of a liberal element that seems hell bent on blaming the last president for everything wrong with the present one.
While on sabbatical from Newsvine I stumbled on something rather remarkable and quite by accident. Several months ago I ran a 5k in the town of Redlands, a small ex-agricultural town in Southern California. My wife, bless her heart, entered me in it without my knowledge. I woke up on Saturday and she asked me what I had planned for Sunday. I responded, knowing my wife never asks me what my plans are without having plans of her own, "Umm, I don't know honey, what do I have planned tomorrow?" She then told me I was going to run a 5k.
Keep in mind, and to the more athletic cadre of the 'vine, a 5k isn't very long. It's a little more than 3 miles and as an ex-military type, not too tough. However, I had been out of the service for 4 years and to say my life up until that point was happily sedentary wouldn't be a stretch. The next day I found myself strapping a pair of ancient New Balance shoes on my feet along with some sort of transponder and looking at a crowd of about 1800 people in the middle of downtown.
Let me back up a bit. Some background might be in order. I come from a family of smokers. Not casual smokers either. I've sat and watched my dad go for hours lighting his next cigarette with the one still in his mouth. My mom's death rattle in the morning is the stuff of horror movies. I suffered from asthma from about age 5 until I joined the service. So, running isn't something I even knew I was good at. After 8 weeks of basic training I put down a 6 minute mile for 6 miles at a time. I didn't know it then, but apparently that's not too bad. What I did know is that I neither liked or disliked running. It was sort of a thing we had to do while working for Uncle Sam. He paid you to do stuff like this so you did it. After basic training I ran less but still kept at it. By the time I hit my first duty station I ran maybe once a week.
Then marriage happened. I went from a trim 174 to about 190 in a few months. By the time I started training for the bombs squad I was a hefty 220. Then, as luck would have it, they don't like jelly bellies in the bomb squad. A few months of running 16 miles a week, in 4 mile increments, brought me back to a very fit 180. As luck would not have it, leaving the military almost automatically put most of that back on. When I lined up for that 5k in Redlands, I was tipping the scale at 216.
What a transformational run. I put down a 9 minute 40 second mile pace and finished 528th in my age group. I got passed by six year old kids (which is hysterical to watch because they have no idea how to pace themselves - they go all out for 100 or 200 yards then stop and pant for 20 or 30 seconds then do it all over again), 60 year old women carrying 20 pound weights and even by mom's pushing strollers. Looking at the best times, if I could have taken this run on at age 20, which is when I could easily push a 6 minute mile, I could have finished in the top 20% overall. At age 34, I struggled to take down a very out of shape 20 something lady in the last 200 yards of the race (but by golly she didn't stand a chance!).
I reflected a lot about what I've lost over the years. After working in EOD, I saw the a level of physical conditioning that up until then I had never seen. Truthfully, after suffering from asthma as a youth and never knowing what being in shape felt like, I didn't even realize what I had until I lost it.
From 2006 until just a few months ago, I saw my weight slowly creep back to what I was at my heaviest. I ate like the future didn't matter and blogged about the same sort of stuff. Honestly, you all have read what I seem only able to put out; depressing ass stuff focusing on a range of topics that not one of us have a bit of control over. Maybe it got to me. Maybe I chased these thoughts so deep down the rabbit hole that I lost sight of everything else around me, including myself.
After my wife thrust me into that run something just clicked. I started running again. I started biking. I started doing things that I never saw myself doing, like going to spin classes and buying really funny looking clothes that leave nothing to the imagination (ever see a tri-suit?). When I ride a bike now its for 25 miles at a time. When I run I often wonder at the 3 and 4 mile marks how long could I keep running before I had to stop? And when I swim the only thing stopping me is the end of the pool, if only for a few seconds.
All of this led me to a brush with a truly inspiring man, Gordon Pirie. If you haven't had a chance to read about him I highly suggest taking the time to do so. I've provided some links in the comment section for that purpose. His book, Running Faster and Injury Free is a religious tome for anyone looking to become what we all are at our core, runners.
I'll save what I mean by that for a later article. Let's just say to all of you that find yourself with a smile on your lips every time you put your running shoes on, or can still remember the total abandon and bliss of running till your lungs were on fire as a child might have an idea as to what I'm talking about. We all have it in us, every single one of us. Without exception.
