Running Course Draws In Closer to Home

I have fond memories of the old, lengthy running course I had devised last year. It ran through several subdivisions and down several thoroughfares in the far northern area of Gainesville. Regardless of how long and intricate of a course I ran, the starting and finishing points were always the same: my house. By winding up and down streets in each neighborhood I entered, I was able to amass a lot of mileage and cover the distance I needed to train up to my goal of a marathon (which I succeeded in running this past January 15).

Now, though, I have abandoned much of the course and have confined my runs to my own subdivision and the one immediately adjacent. But since I can build up a ten-mile course just by running up and down the individual streets near my house, there really is no need to go elsewhere. Unless, of course, weather conditions dictate that a treadmill session at the YMCA would work better.

I am currently working on building my running distance back up to about six or seven miles, three days a week, with either rest or lighter cross-training on the other days. Maybe I'll try half-marathon races that come up; I'll just have to see where I'm at when those opportunities arise. But more than anything, I am seeking to balance my running with the rest of my life and make this enjoyable activity something sustainable for many more years (I am currently 54).

I admire folks who take an activity like long-distance running and turn it into a passion that they fanatically pursue for many years. But at least with running, I don't feel the same intensity. There are other areas in my life that I want to devote my attention to as well, and there's no reason I can't pursue excellence in them while sticking with my running in a reasonable way. In other words, I see myself as being an "anti-fanatic", engaging in several different areas of self-improvement while integrating them into my routine existence. That's not the kind of lifestyle that will garner me the kind of publicity that running fanatics like Dean "Karno" Karnazes and John "Maddog" Wallace have enjoyed, but everyone's different and I am just as entitled to be myself as they are themselves. After all, each of us has to write our own story...