The Race – Chapter?
Wednesday, 17 February 2010
Life is like an EKG. Waves rise and fall. Up and down. I was riding high. Running every day. Feeling stronger. Lighter. Younger even. Last Sunday was to be my first 5 mile run. But I worked all weekend. Shooting late on Saturday and then up early for a 12 hour shoot Sunday. Happy Valentines day to me. So I put of the run until Monday. I was tired Monday and my left knee was a little sore so I went to the gym instead of running outside. 5 easy miles on the treadmill. Less impact. But after about 15 minutes my knee was hurting bad enough to slow my pace so I quit. Pushed some weights for about 45 minutes and sat in the sauna for another 20. Now it’s Wednesday and I haven’t worked out since. The knee still hurts. I don’t really know what to do. I was starting to really enjoy the training. The schedule. I didn’t have to think about it. Just get up and do what the schedule said I needed to do for the day. I liked that. A lot. Now there’s a weird limbo. The outcome is less certain. I don’t want to hurt my knees. I do want to run the race. I think starting tomorrow I will begin training in the gym. Low impact cardio. Machines. I really hate that. I get bored so easy. I was really enjoying being outside. Feeling the air. Discovering new trails. Last week I passed a large white bird on the side of the trail. It was about 4 feet tall, standing on one long leg. It looked like a sea bird although we’re about 30 miles from the ocean, as the crow flies. It was huge. Elegant. Beautiful. It looked so out of place as I passed it, very close. And it never moved. I watched it as I ran by, craning my neck until I almost ran off the trail. And when I turned back a few seconds later it was gone.
Lately I’ve been wanting to live outside. For a year maybe. I want to kill my dinner and cook it on a fire. I don’t want to see a computer or a cell phone. I don’t want to watch television or pump gas or go to restaurants. I don’t want to hear traffic or neighbors. I don’t want to hear anything but the wind. I want to bath in cold mountain springs and sleep in different places every night. I want to walk a hundred miles and then turn around and walk 200 miles back. I want to climb a mountain again. I want to climb a mountain and not have to climb back down for a while. I want to get lost and not try and find the way back. I want to get lost.
- Staley Out
No. 1 — February 17th, 2010 at 6:15 pm
i often wonder what it is about us (as humans) that sometimes makes us so different inside. nature vs. nurture and all that…
because you grew up in a much more harmonious and intimate relationship with nature..is that why it calls to you the way it does? because i grew up in suburbia…is that why strip malls feel comfortable and safe to me? i spent a lot of time doing suburban things in suburban places and i feel much safer in the parking lot of a strip mall in a place like valencia than i do in the forest, surrounded by places to get lost.
it’s strange.
interesting. but strange.
No. 2 — March 3rd, 2010 at 1:03 pm
hi…im new here..i think ill come back though…
I just read this post…liked it…can relate…
obvious question coming…..
so whats stopping you?