Holiday Runs

In the next few days Brett and I (Bryan) will be united once again in Memphis for the Holidays. My hope is that we'll find enough time between all the family events to get some good runs knocked out. I'm sure he's been slacking off on his pace and distance so it will be a good chance for me to stick it to him!!!

I love running during the holidays. The streets and trails are always a little more bare. It is also nice to burn off some of the extra holiday calories. So this holiday season, re-unite with some old training buddies and log some miles.

Merry Chirstmas!

Down Into the Crevasse

The last few months I have been in sort of a running slump. I don't know what exactly caused this slump, but there has definitely been a lack of interest there. It could be because my main running partner, best man and big brother abandoned me in Memphis? Just kidding...no but seriously. Whatever the reason I've found it hard to climb out of this hole.

Finally I began to enjoy running again after I stopped trying so hard. I took a few weeks off to reboot and then started back slow. I also made it a priority to run by myself more. I think I had just gotten spoiled from always having someone to train with or enjoyed the camaraderie of my training partners so much, that I fell out of love with the actual running. Slowly I've begun to fall for it again. I had to go back to the basics...down into the crevasse. (There was an episode of 30 Rock where Alec Baldwin tells a story of falling into a crevasse in a mountain and the only way he could escape was by going deeper into the crevasse.)

So that's what I did. Sunk deeper and went back to square one: Love. You gotta have the love to do what we do. -The End-

Bryan

Remember who you are...

My Christmas present this year from the wife was dinner and tickets to the musical Lion King. It's been a long time since I had seen the Disney movie but the lines and songs (those that were not changed) were all coming back to my mind. But I always forget about the one scene in the Lion King that gets me - no tears are involved but it's pretty close.

There's the scene where Rafiki (sp?) leads Simba out into the wilderness with the promise that he will show him his father. When he tells him to look deep into the water Simba's reflection turns into the face of his father. Then he hears his father's voice say, "You have forgotten me." When Simba protests that he has not, Mufasa answers back, "You have forgotten who you are and so have forgotten me."

This scene always gets me for two reasons. Number one, it makes me think of the commitments I have made through my Christian faith and how I see God as my father. So in turn it makes me think of the times I have failed to be who I am born to be, or have been less than that... and when that happens I have "forgotten the face of my father" (line borrowed from The Dark Tower series by Stephen King). But it also then of course makes me think of my biological father and my hopes that I have remembered his face in my life.

When I started having trouble in college with my running, pretty much right off the bat with a major injury, one of my biggest struggles was feeling like I was somehow letting down my father. And as my college career closed I had not completed any of my primary goals in relationship to running. It was actually my younger brother Bryan who helped to give me perspective on my college running and thanks to him I was able to realize that during this time, at least in that way, I had not forgotten the face of my father.

Thanks Bryan, and like Simba maybe we should stop to check and make sure we remember who we really are, and who we are not!