Rave Run

The sixth installment of the Indianapolis Mini-Marathon is this weekend. We'll be headed west sometime Friday night... eating some kind of pasta dish along the way and hopefully getting to Chez Elliott around 9:30pm and into bed by 10:30 or so.

I love the week before a "big" race. This being "big" because this was the focal point of my runs from the first of the year until now. But all the training is officially complete... roughly 596.8 miles and 74 hours later. But even a half marathon deserves a taper which gives you extra time to question whether you've done enough... there's even a term for it... "taper madness". Every detail of your training and your preparation is picked over. But I've had a good year of running and am fortunate for that. It's given me so much more than I could have ever expected. And with all this time on my hands that would have otherwise been spent on the track or on a long run, I've reflected on one or two.

One such instance came on Christmas Day. It's always a tumultuous time of the year. Rushing this way and that way. Buying last minute gifts. It's hard to relax and I noticed I wasn't looking forward to it as much as I had in the past. This year seemed to be no different. But as the day was giving way to evening, I laced up the runners and slipped out the door and onto the Piqua bike path. I headed east to the river, then northwest along the bank, eventually following it west until I got to Swift Run where I turned south along the canal. The air was cool, the skies were clear and with it being Christmas Day in Piqua, there was absolutely no one out. I followed the bend by Echo Lake, crossed over Park Avenue and shortly after, the canal opened up again into Frantz's Pond. It was here that I saw a big, bright moon hanging over the ice-covered pond and silhouetted tree line. It just struck me as being one of the more beautiful and serene scenes I'd ever witnessed.

It made me realize that life only gets more complicated and hurried as we get older... there's no changing that. If you try, you'll spend it throwing good energy at the bad. But finding the "thing" that allows you to see beauty each day is where it's at. I know it's been said a million times, but it may be something you have to experience firsthand. It was for me. I've been running pretty regularly for several years and always thought of it as work... something that had to be done. And whereas not every single run reveals to me the secret depths that only the universe and I know, ever since that Christmas Day run, it's common to see something beautiful... something I wouldn't have seen otherwise. So running happens to be one of my "things" at this point in my life. I know everyone's is different and I wish I knew them... maybe it's putting your son/daughter down for the night. Maybe it's cooking dinner for your family. Maybe it's writing/reading/blogging. Who knows... who cares. If you love it/need it, that's all that matters. I would make a better friend, sibling, fiancé, son, citizen and all around person if I did know. Wouldn't we all?

A little dramatic, yes, but hey, who's surprised? And so it's funny sometimes how naysayers tell me that running is bad for me... it'll ruin my joints and lead to long-term injury. The problem with that theory is that I don't do it for my joints, I do it so I can see something beautiful everyday.