Run Wit' It

I was reading the book of Mosiah in the Book of Mormon the other day about King Benjamin and it just hit me what an amazing man he was. Mosiah was a king who really stood out among kings because of his strong work ethic and humility. I was impressed by his lessons on serving each other and also about keeping a written journal of the most important parts of our lives. He would be an expert on the subject having just abridged all the records of his people handed down to him on etched plates of brass. I have to admit I have long forgotten about writing in the book on my shelf with the yellowing pages and the golden embossed wording on the outside. Some of the older generation have said it’s unsafe to rely on electronic journals (like a blog) as those could be wiped out at any time. They obviously have never heard of house fires or termites, and have no clue how hard it is to erase something from the internet. There’s always a backup somewhere these days, even if you don’t want it.

My dad is 70 now and thinking of retiring early next year. He’s a prosthetist at a VA hospital but he realizes he’s slowing down and it’s not fair to his customers to have to wait for him to complete their leg orders when there are younger faster hands on deck. So I asked him recently what he plans to do with his time after retirement and he said he’ll spend much of his time doing family history work and continue writing his memoirs. When I retire, I plan to spend a lot of time travelling – God permitting. But back to my point, I’ve never seen any of my ancestor’s journals and don’t really know much about them. So there’s something to be said about the accessibility of electronic journals. This is my journal of things I want to remember & share during the next 40 years more or less before I start writing my final memoirs because there are just too many fun & funny experiences that just can’t wait and I want to have something to refer back to when I lose my mind.

Last year during my first 25K race (my longest run to date), it struck me that if I just gave myself a few more weeks of training, I could actually run a marathon. So that made it an official bucket list item. My boss, Kevin, is an avid & elite distance runner. Last year after my first 10-mile training run, he greeted me with ‘Hi runner’ and it just felt so weird and wonderful to be accepted by an insider in that category all the sudden. I still wrestle with accepting the fact that even though running was never my passion and long ago I’d do anything to avoid running, I’ve been doing it fairly frequently for the past decade so it’s time to embrace that title finally. I am a runner.

Well, Kevin recently decided to organize an unofficial marathon on Saturday December 11 this year – the day before the Honolulu Marathon which is one I was actually considering. Unofficial just means there won’t be any sort of police or medical presence and will be entirely staffed by volunteers so the entry fee is basically the cost of the t-shirt (which in my mind is the minimum requirement for any legitimate race and the carrot that will keep me going). It’s open to anyone who wants to join so if you have ambitions in that area let me know and I’ll get you info. I’m in my 3rd week of training now and just getting back into runners form again. It was a long winter and I lost all my conditioning from last year so I’m back at level 1 again but I’m committed to my training for the next 6-months at least.