It’s September and whether or not you’ve just found this site, have been reading since day one or have just now bumbled upon this post sometime far in the future—today as I publish this is the one month anniversary of this rebooted running writing effort.
By now you’ve possibly read a few posts about me, my training, my habits and my running philosophy—and I’m just getting started.
But here’s the thing: while running is this huge piece of my personal identity, I am going to—have already done so, actually—delve into parallel topics that I think are all woven together as part of a bigger story of persistence and ambition.
Running is a metaphor for so much of what has been positive in my life that it is sometimes hard to pry apart the curious impacts that have emerged from something so seemingly disconnected from everything else that it even now, twenty years later, sounds odd to credit huffing and puffing through the neighbourhood with something so much bigger than the effort.
Running for me has been about community, leadership and friends.
Running for me has been about mindset, persistence and striving for something beyond my own perceptions of self.
Running for me has been about goal-setting, obstacle-crushing, and endurance of not just body by mind and spirit.
I bring this notion to other parts of my life, including putting words on a page and building something bigger from ideas and hard work. Like a website full of big ideas and hard work: I hope you’ve been enjoying it so far.
Let’s keep building.
Definitions
- august
- In the month of August where I live summer peaks and the days are often relatively hot (in the high 20s or low 30s) muggy, smokey and dry. Rain is infrequent, but when it arrives it comes in the form of drenching downpours and epic thunderstorms. We begin our runs earlier in the day because the local marathon runs late in the month and our training distances are maxing.
- goal
- In training lingo, a planned series of steps and milestones to reach some planned achievement: A race time. A race finish. A weekly mileage total. A streak. Or getting through an injury. Goals are personal and (for me) important.
- october
- Fully into autumn, October is a month of shifting seasons, short days, long shadows, and gorgeous sunsets. The cobwebs are hung on the eaves in preparation for halloween, and here in Canada we're running off Thanksgiving dinner for a couple weeks after a proper good meal mid-month.
- september
- The days are noticeably shorter when we realize that September is upon us. The post-summer routine kicks in and people are back to regular work schedules and kids are back in school. It can still be warm, but the hottest days are behind us and most of the biggest races of the year are in the rear view. We savour September knowing winter is too soon to come.
