I once worked with an amazing woman, Leslie, who I have long admired.  She was everything I would like to be – beautiful, athletic, intelligent, tall.  Leslie was a master swimmer who also had completed Ironman (Ironwoman?) Triathlons.  When I started training for my first marathon, Leslie was one of the people I turned to for advice, which was always on point and helpful.   We worked together on projects that sometimes seemed meaningless.  When we had moments of despair about the lack of success on what we were doing, Leslie would counsel me not to worry, in two years ..read more

Have you ever had a situation where someone told you that you weren’t capable of doing something?  Comments like this can make someone doubt their abilities to the point they don’t even try, especially if the comments come from people who are influential in your life – a family member, close friend, or even a teacher.  I realized recently some of my decisions in life have been influenced in this way. There were many who thought my decision to take up running was a joke.  I had not distinguished myself as an athlete when I was growing up.  My non-athletic nature was somethin ..read more

This has been a challenging year for me. In August I wrote how regular exercise and movement can help people dealing with loss.  My post was prompted by my own struggles.  Since I was in the middle of a training cycle for both a half and a full marathon, I was able to keep moving.  In September I found it increasingly difficult to get my training miles in.  A non-running-related injury interrupted my training schedule.  I realized it would be in my best interests to withdraw from the marathon.  Although I have pushed myself through injuries in the past, it didn’t ..read more

I frequently hear people pointing out someone who they feels is inspirational.  It is a term that is used for people in all walks of life – political figures, social activists, scientists, business leaders.  I googled inspirational people. Some are people I would admire but I am not comfortable using the label “inspirational” to describe them. I started wondering what does it mean to be inspirational.  I looked up definitions of inspirational so that I fully understood the term.  I like this definition: “Inspirational people set a goal for themselves and then do everything ..read more

During my training runs I spend my time thinking about all sorts of things.  Most recently I have been thinking about skills I believe are important to a successful life.  I googled and discovered the World Health Organization, UNICEF, and UNESCO have identified the ten most important life skills.  (Apparently I wasn’t the only one thinking about this.).  Their list included self-awareness; empathy; critical thinking; creative thinking; decision-making; problem solving; effective communication; interpersonal relationships; coping with stress; and coping with emotions.  ..read more

Wow!  We are at the end of another year – 2022.  I can’t say that it has been one for the record books.  After three years on the bench and recovery from surgery for torn meniscus in my knee, I decided to run a marathon. I trained for over 8 months for the Athens (Greece) Marathon  All those hours out on the trails, logging miles in heat and rain, and on hills (LOTS of hills) made me think about this whole running thing.  Is it really what I wanted to do?  Over the years my running group has slowly diminished to the point that it is mostly only me these days.  ..read more

“I often hear someone say I’m not a real runner. We are all runners, some just run faster than others. I have never met a fake runner.” Bart Yasso Standing in a corral at a race start When you picture a runner in your mind, what does that person look like?  I had an experience recently that made me wonder what people might envision. I was at an event, chatting with a woman I just met (I’ll call her Suzie).  We were outside – me standing, bundled up in a heavy coat against the cold, while Suzie sat in her chair, smoking a cigarette and drinking a soda.  We were doing that verbal ..read more

“Don’t wait for everything to be perfect before you decide to enjoy your life.” Joyce Meyer In one of the Christmas cards I received was a note from the sender. He commented it had been a long time since I posted in my blog. I can’t argue with him because it has been a long time. I have a bunch of ideas for posts swirling around in my head, waiting for me to work on them. Now that I know someone has been waiting for me to write I decided to get to work today. There are two things that inspired today’s post. The first came from my brother who created an imaginary holiday based on Marcel Proust ..read more

Wow.  It has been over a year since my last blog post.  And boy, oh boy, has this last year been challenging for us all.  It has taken me some time to get beyond all the bad things that happened to see this year wasn’t a total downer.  There were some good things to come out of it. December 2019 A year ago I was recuperating from surgery on torn meniscus in my knee.  It is every runner’s nightmare – an injury that could spell the end of a runner’s career.  I was depressed and worried that day had arrived for me.  One thing I was not prepared for was the amou ..read more

My post about running in Queenstown, New Zealand is still a work in progress  – I promise to have it ready next week.  In the meantime this post from my early blogging days came to mind.  I remembered it because I overheard runners during the Queenstown marathon talking about how the race was killing them.  No, it wasn’t and don’t even make a statement like that in jest.  Kayla Montgomery came to mind, as well as a bunch of other people I know with conditions that keep them from any movement, let alone running.  So while my blog on running in Hobbit land continues to percolate, read about Kayl ..read more