On this, the first official long-run day of my training for the "50 Mile Dolphin Dash", I find I need a lot of motivation to get out of the house. In the past, all of my distance running has been done in distinctly less urban and even very remote areas - Pebble Beach/Carmel/Big Sur (CA); Athens and Ossabaw Island (GA), even the Everglades in south Florida. Never underestimate the power of being pursued by every hungry mosquito in south Florida.
Now that I live in south-central Los Angeles, distance running seems much less Zen to me. The constant stimuli - noise, traffic, and people - make it a tremendous effort to get into "The Zone". Despite what many may think, distance running is akin to moving meditation - it takes some doing to acheive Nirvana, but once there, you're blissfully on autopilot and can go forever. It's a "mind-body-soul thing" I cannot adequately describe, and not totally related to an endorphin high - it goes well beyond that.
Urban area or not... I'll make the most of it. And I will return to my running Nirvana, even if I have to leave L.A. for intense weekend training sessions in the Big Sur/Carmel area. It boils down to this... I'm a simple person with simple needs - I need good running shoes. I need to run, and not much else. That is my consuming passion, and my greatest source of inner contentment, peace, and joy.
So now, I read my dog-eared copy of The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner to officially kick off the training season, as I have done for so many years, and remember that the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
I won't be lonely, though. You'll be joining me for the journey.
CMc
