The loneliness of the long run

First I must admit that I will not be running Dam to Dam this year as I may or may not have wrote earlier. At a month out from the race I decided that I just didn't have my distance up to par. I wanted to be at eleven or twelve miles and I was at eight. You should know that I don't consider a run as long until it's six or more miles, although someday I hope to be like one of these amazing guys. I needed a new goal so I decided that this summer I will get faster. A lot of mile and two mile repeats, shorter interval runs, but keeping up the longer runs on the weekend. I actually haven't had a long run in several weeks, which means I need to get to it.

I ran middle distance my first two years of high school. I don't have many regrets, but not running cross country and not finishing the last two years of track are on my list of regrets [I don't actually keep a list of regrets]. At the end of practice our coach would send us on a long run to, well I don't really know why, I suppose it was good for us in some fashion. A lot of the guys in the group were cross country runners, and so I would eventually find myself alone at the back of the pack, running through the wilds of West Des Moines.

Those runs, so long ago now, remain the foundation of my long runs these days. I end up in the country or some tucked away corner of the city where I can run by myself and embrace the loneliness of a middle distance runner. The thought crossed my mind today how odd it is that I, as someone who must have community to survive, also love being alone in a time where I'm pushing my body to its limits. I am a weird mix of intro- and extro- version. But there is also something to be said about these long runs being somewhat meditative, maybe more on that some other day.

News and notes: I finished the semester, not strongly, not weakly, I managed. I made a trip to Western Michigan, which was lovely and I loved seeing the Gateses and Jennifer and the lake dunes. Any day now we will finish phase II on the massive warehouse overhaul. Word on the street is that this film may be shot on location in my home away from home [the warehouse] - which would be absolutely incredible, or incredibly annoying. That's all I got for now. you have my love.