Run Flores Run!: Looking Backward, Moving Forward...

UltraEndurance

"Perhaps the genius of ultrarunning is its supreme lack of utility. It makes no sense in a world of space ships and supercomputers to run vast distances on foot. There is no money in it and no fame, frequently not even the approval of peers. But as poets, apostles and philosophers have insisted from the dawn of time, there is more to life than logic and common sense. The ultra runners know this instinctively. And they know something else that is lost on the sedentary. They understand, perhaps better than anyone, that the doors to the spirit will swing open with physical effort. In running such long and taxing distances they answer a call from the deepest realms of their being -- a call that asks who they are ..." (David Blaikie).

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Looking Backward, Moving Forward...

"One can look back a thousand years easier than forward fifty." - Richard Bellamy, Looking Backward.

In my kitchen, I have a digital picture frame that plays a slideshow of photos taken throughout the years. As I was cleaning up after lunch, I stopped and stared at each picture as it appeared on the screen. Pictures create memories of our past. Deep inside, I wished that the digital frame would give me a glimpse of what's to come...pictures that will one day be on the display screen.

Photos taken during the Keys 100 mile run came on the screen and I had a huge moment of self-discovery. I have been in Arizona for a year now, and I remember looking at these same photos last year at this time. I recall thinking, I wish I was THAT person again: that strong, that focused, that happy. Pictures of Lisa Smith-Batchen's 50 miler here in Phoenix came up next. I hadn't trained at all for that day, but I went out and ran anyway. I remember feeling confident that day, and smart (making good decisions about nutrition, pace, etc). Today, as I looked at the pictures flash by, my heart smiled, I am a BETTER person: stronger, more focused, and the happiest I have ever been in my life. I have reached the summit of your pyramid, Maslowe! What could possibly come next? Do I dare ask?

Keep moving forward, one foot in front of the other. Relentless. Forward. Motion.