2022.12.21 - Run Dirt
We live in a world that separates us from the earth, the dirt. Make 2023 the year to get back to the land and set your soul free. I have running friends who avoid the trails. They either worry about tripping on uneven ground or that they run road races only and feel they should train on roads. At times I feel like a fuller brush Christian as I preach the trail message.
When running or walking along playfully like Peter Rabbit, we develop the ancillary muscles that go underdeveloped when running or walking on a flat surface with a narrow range of muscles going through the exact range of motion over and over. This often leads to overuse injuries because once tired, our body goes to these ancillary muscles to keep stable, and for the road runner, they may not be there. Trails increase our proprioception, that is, our body's ability to sense its location, its movement, it allows us to take that next step without thinking where to place our foot. Use it or loose it. Trail running not only teaches the mind and body to flow over rough terrain, it helps us flow through life with a grace and efficiency that is often taken away by an aging, overly careful, or sedentary life.
Flow wild and free forever!
Randy Step, an admitted obsessed trail runner who along with the Dirt Crew at RF Events, has created a year long calendar of trail events to escape the man-made world for bit. We will run, walk, hike and frolic together in nature! Check out The GOAT Trail Series that kicks off with Trail Weekend!
Yesterday I had a glorious morning run that was followed by a long tough day of I.T. problems and little accomplishment. Several times during the day I reflected back to the run and each time it gave me renewed energy and hope. I was reminded that much of what we get from a run comes to us far after the work is done. There have been difficult days that I’ve thought back to hard earned marathon finishes I’ve had that continue to push me forward and will for life. The run is so much more that it seems on the surface, each run comes with lifelong mental, physical, spiritual, and inspirational benefits.
In the midweek emails, my thoughts and ideas about the value of the run and what a gift it is for us to have found running are nothing new to us. As runners, we know them from personal experience, I just happen to put them into words. These midweek pokes are reminders of the gift, because like so many of the most precious things in life, it is easily taken for granted. We may be frustrated at the world, overwhelmed by the to-do list and unread emails we need to get to while our precious run slips under the layers and out of mind … Then, when scanning the inbox, there is the midweek, and the run comes into the spotlight at center stage!
A non-runner, looking out the window on a 35 degree, grey, so called, dreary November morning, may not see it as an inspirational setting to lure them outside. To us runners who know that the temp is ideal for a crisp, lively run, don’t think twice and head out knowing that just out the door, the magic happens! Once the blood is flowing, we will start to notice the simple beauty of the world that surrounds us, like the sharp edges on gunmetal clouds, the repeating pattern of last night’s flurries frosting the final leave of fall along the roads edge, little things that have us living in the moment, which is the true gift of the run.
his midweek relates to the line, finish your dinner, there are starving children in Africa! So, you are healthy and have no excuse not to get out for a run today while there are injured runners who would give anything to be in your shoes! Not that you eating will help those kids or that your run will cheer up someone that’s be sidelined but the point is, we who are fortunate should never take it for granted. Heathy days are a gift, and as the late great Steve Prefontaine said, “To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift.” We are only dancin’ on this earth for a short while so …
I’ve been in Florida since the day Hurricane Ian hit our second home here, I’ve never spent time on the front lines of a disaster and it’s harder than I could have imagined. I am dirty, tired but safe. The marathon mentality and fitness level from being a runner has got me through and kept me going. It’s a high tech modern world that makes it easy to forget that you might be in a situation that your fitness level can save your life or lives of others. Let’s get our butts out the door so we can be the ones to help, perhaps not being the one needing help. That said, I feel for those who have only one home and have lost everything. The incredible outpouring of support down here is humbling. We live in a great country with great people. Every day I’ve had people volunteering to save our home. They come door to door asking if we need help. They deliver hot lunches, water and lift spirits, and make me smile and cry. 
For those of us running long in Detroit, Grand Rapids, Chicago or wherever, this is no time to second think our training. It’s rare that training goes as planned. We can’t change it now so it’s time to accept that whatever kind of miles we got in, we need to come up with a realistic plan of how to run our race, not, on what we hoped. I’ve said it before, if you go in undertrained you have nothing to lose, those who are well trained are at risk of blowing all the work they have done! Ha. That said, those who did the work, I’m proud of you already. Run smart, follow your plan and enjoy your race! The rest of us will do the work on race day, not ideal but it will be an adventure, perhaps a painful and long adventure but we will cross the same finish line and will learn a bit about ourselves. Good stuff. Run smart and laugh at yourself when sh##t hits the fan and remember, this is what we do for fun!