Running Past (1982) and Present - A New Kind of Race

While going through storage bins I came across some of my old running logs. There have been years where I have been very conscientious about keeping track of my training and even documenting other life notes in my logs and other years, most years actually, where I haven't done much more than keep track of total miles run and race results. 1982 was actually an example of both types of recording.

From January 1st to July 24th I have a note that I logged a total of 620 miles to that point and there are no other entries in my log book. As a matter of fact, the book I used was actually started on January 1st 1980 and only kept until March 2nd of '80. The fact that I know I ran 620 miles before actually keeping a comprehensive log in '82 would indicate that I was keeping track of my running mileage just nothing in detail.

The two notes that standout from the '80 log are as follows: On January 1st - "Race in Carlsbad, 3 miles, 22:08, 6th overall and 2nd in age group". And the best note from all of my running journals that I have gone through, January 13th - "Today we found out we're going to have a baby"! 

In 1982 I started racing a lot more and kept a fairly complete log from July 25th to the end of the year. I actually have results from 8 races in four months including a full marathon in Clovis, New Mexico, an 8.6 mile race in Hobbs, New Mexico, three 5 mile races and three 3 mile races in New Mexico and Texas.

One of the highlights of that period of racing was actually running two three mile races on the same day, September 11th in Odessa, Texas and winning my age group in both of them. The first race was sponsored by the West Texas Running Club and started at 9:00 a.m. I ran 18:09 and was 5th overall and 1st in my age group. Both races were held at the same park so after the first, I cooled down and signed up for the seconds race that started at 10:30 a.m. It was sponsored by the Ector County Parks and Recreation Department. I ran 18:35 and finished 3rd overall and won my age group again.

Clovis - Allsup's Marathon 3:05.37 (1:32.33 @ 13.1)

AND A NEW KIND OF RACE

This past Thursday I ran a race in Stockton. It was called an Urbanathon and I guess it is called that because the race includes obstacles. In addiction to the obstacles it was run on a cross country course with everything from gravel trails, sand, minimal pavement and a lot of cultivated field. I knew going in to not expect time to matter because it was 97 degrees at the start of the race. After warming up and jogging a good bit of the course that was reinforced. There were water troughs to run through, hay bales to go over and ribbons stretched across the course to go over or under. It was a fun event and I would consider doing another one in the future. The idea that time wasn't a factor was actually kind of refreshing. 

Because it was a race that started at 5:30 in the evening I decided to spend part of the day sightseeing in Stockton as well as visiting a used book store. I was actually planning to visit another but when I got there it was closed on Thursdays I saw parts of Stockton that I have often thought about seeing but I was always driving to or back from something and it just didn't work out so I decided to take advantage of the day. I just made sure to stay hydrated while sightseeing and it worked out well.

And these are pictures from all directions of the beautiful sunrise one day last week. 

Back to School or "No Where To Go"!

On September 3rd I was two miles into a six mile run when it finally struck me why I had been struggling with some mild depression the prior week or two. It was time to go back to school and time to start coaching cross country and I had no where to go.

As I said, I had been experiencing some mild depression, mild anxiety and had felt angry or irritated by things that usually wouldn't bother me. Both the anger and the anxiety are usually sure signs that something is wrong with me and despite the fact that I know it I can't always simply "fix it". Fortunately for the most part when I do figure out what is causing it then it does become fairly easy to fix. Thinking back, as well as reading old journals I realized that it was, "that time of year again". That time of year when I have feelings that I can't really figure out where they are coming from and it has been going on for the past ten years. "That time of year" in my case is early September when school and cross country are restarting; early to mid February when track is starting and early to mid July for other reasons brought on by unpleasant memories.

The good news as I said is that once I've identified the problem I can take steps to resolve it. Some of those steps are:

*Stay Active - even though I often find myself more tired than usual during these times I have to remember to make myself get out and do things. (As I said, the resolution this time actually came during a run).

*Don't deny the feelings - People often want you to just "shake it off", "get over it", "move on" and it is easy for them to say because they don't know what you or I am going through.

*Embrace the feelings and do what needs to be done to deal with them appropriately and move on. Believe it or not writing this blog post is another thing that I do to help.

*Honor the feelings by admitting them to yourself - Another way to avoid denying the feelings or trying to minimize their impact on you and your life.

*Do not let other people tell you how you should feel - They are your feelings and you have a right to feel them and deal with them. Hopefully it will get easier each time the arise and maybe eventually they will no longer return.

*Share - It is important to have at least one person in your life to talk with when you are struggling and having difficulty dealing with feelings and figuring out where they are coming from.

*Pray - Some days the only thing you can do is pray for some relief and put the feelings on the back burner until you are ready to deal with them.

Those are some of the steps that I have taken throughout the years and each of them is important to me and my mental health. We can't minimize the importance of maintaining mental health to having a balanced and healthy life. I don't know if anyone reading this will benefit from what I've written but it has helped me to further resolve some issues by writing about it.

I have to remind myself from time to time that when I retired from teaching and coaching I gave up a part of my life that has always been important to me and just like any loss there have to be steps of dealing with it. One of those steps is to admit that it is a loss and deal with it as such. Something that was a part of my life for almost 50 years, school and teaching, and over 30 years, coaching, is gone and it isn't easy to replace. While I have accepted it on a conscious level and have worked to move on in healthy ways obviously subconsciously things are stirred up every year at this time and the quicker I recognize what it is the better off I am.

It goes without saying that reading and running are two of the things that I use to have a fuller life and both of those played a part in getting out of this period of "Back to School Blues". I ran a race in Ripon on Labor Day weekend and then this past week I took out my book list notebook and headed to a nice used book store that we have in Turlock. I considered both to be *Mental Health Days another thing that I believe are necessary to being healthy.

Even when I'm feeling down being around the running community can have a real positive impact on my spirits. It was a beautiful day even though it was a little warm for the race.

And then there was my trip last week to the bookstore in Turlock. It is a nice family owned independant store and I always enjoy going there whether I'm looking for something specific or to just look around. I have found a lot of interesting books in used book stores that I would never have read otherwise.

  
Bottom line, we're all going to have rough spots from time to time and the more prepared we are for them the easier it is to get through them and in many cases come out the other side better because of them.

If I could wish family and friends a life with no rough spots that is what I would do but since that's impossible then hopefully the next best thing is to share how I get through some and maybe offer some ideas that others will find helpful.

Education - Where and How do we get it? Some thoughts from Louis L'Amour

While I was in Springfield, Oregon I visited two different used book stores. It was while I was at the second that I inadvertently found the book that prompted this post. I enjoy memoirs and I enjoyed everything I had ever read written by Louis L'Amour, one of my Dad's favorite authors. This book really tied together the concepts of both Wanderlust and Wonderlust. And just increased my appetite for both.

L'Amour said,
"A wanderer I had been through most of my early years, and now that I had my own home, my wandering continued, but among books. No longer could I find most of the books I wanted in libraries. I had to seek them out in foreign or secondhand-book stores, which was a pleasure in itself. When seeking books, one always comes upon unexpected treasures or books on subjects that one has never heard of, or heard mentioned only in passing.
Now I knew what I wished to learn and could direct my education with more intelligence".

Earlier in the book he had written,
"Only one who has learned much can fully appreciate his ignorance.
He knows so well the limits of his knowledge and how much lies waiting to be learned".

I was a Social Studies teacher for 29 years, 30 if you include my student teaching. During that entire time I never thought of myself as a particularly good or bad teacher, I was just a teacher and I did the best that I could to teach the subject matter that I was assigned. Where I feel that my expertise was had nothing to do with content, it had to do with teaching young people how to learn. Many of my colleagues had so much more content knowledge that there was no comparison and they were good teachers of content.

Additionally many of my colleagues only knew the world of formal education; they went to school for 12 or 13 years, they went to college for 4 or 5 years, then they became teachers. Some never even worked outside of the education world and yet they wanted to pass themselves off as life experts. That was where I often had trouble with formal education and "educators" with all the answers. They took great pride in the fact that they required students to memorize the periodic table, the theorems of math or the chronological order of Presidents. In all honesty I could have cared less about rote memorization.

I'm not saying that memorization is bad, it is good exercise for the brain and I can still recite things like the scientific method or the classifications of animals that I learned over 50 years ago. What I learned and what I tried to teach however that I felt then and still feel is more important is where to go to get the answers. When I was in school and when I first started teaching it was as simple as teaching students library and research skills. Now there is so much that makes it even easier with technology but you still have to help whet the appetite of people so they want to learn more and this is where I found a quote from L'Amour to reinforce my thoughts on the matter.

"I think the greatest gift anyone can give another is the desire to know, to understand. Life is not for simply watching spectator sports, or for taking part in them; it is not for simply living from one working day to the next. Life is for delving, discovering, learning. Today, one can sit in the comfort of his own home and explore any part of the world or even outer space through books. They are all around us, offering such riches as can scarcely be believed. Also, I might add, having done both, it is better to sit in comfort with a cold drink in hand and read the tale than to actually walk out of the Mohave Desert as I did."

I'm not suggesting that I would rather read about a new place than visit it but I agree with L'Amour that reading can be a way to visit places you may otherwise never have an opportunity to see. In a previous post I spoke of Wonderlust and the importance of instill it and passing it on to others. How do you do that with someone who has always been a non reader and expresses no interest in becoming a reader?

L'Amour states: "Yet for those who have not been readers, my advice is to read what entertains you. Reading is fun. Reading is adventure. It is not important what you read at first, only that you read".

And read I do!