Autumn Marathon

A Better, More Peaceful Person

For reasons I am not open or public enough to blog, April has been a difficult month for me. How I would have managed it without the pillars of running and CrossFit, I do not know. I ran two 10ks, one on the VCP trails and one in Central Park, posting decent times and feeling very strong. My CrossFit practice improved despite constantly being on the road for work.  My weight hit its lowest point in over seven years!  And, yet, I spent much of my workout time thinking about the issues swirling around in my life, rather than feeling, focusing on and reveling in every breath, movement and effort.

Late in the month, I started reading the best-selling book, Born to Run.  The author, Christopher McDougall, writes about the Tarahumara tribe of northern Mexico and a group of American ultra-runners who travel to the Copper Canyon territory to learn their approach to running.  One of the Americans, a young Ultra star named Jenn Shelton put into a few colorful sentences the aspiration that many of us have for our exercise -

I never really discussed this with anyone because it sounds pretentious, but I started running ultras to become a better person. I thought if you could run 100 miles, you’d be in this Zen state.  You’d be the fucking Buddha, bringing peace and a smile to the world.  It didn’t work in my case - I’m the same old punk ass as before - but there’s always that hope it will turn you into the person you want to be, a better more peaceful person.

Here’s hoping for more Zen and less “punk-ass” in the coming months!