One More Trip Around the Sun

This past week I made my 44th trip around the sun and lo and behold, once more I am asking myself, "where the hell did the time go?!!!" Seriously though, as my body continues to move at a slower pace, time seems to have grown wings and is flying along. It seems like only yesterday I was 43 and here I am 44. Time to purchase some Grecian Formula and Metamucil. Actually adding another digit to the chronological chain is not too bad or alarming. As I look back over the past year, I have been blessed to have once again to have completed another trip around the great track of life and it was filled with some great moments. So here are my top three running life moments of the past year.

Number 3: Completing not once, but twice a streak of 100 days of straight running. The first ended in March at 105 days and my current streak reached 100 days on February 6 and is currently at 112 days and counting. During the current streak I have lost 16-17 pounds, have established a regular training routine that includes a long run, interval training and racing. It is by far the most consistent I have been with my running in over ten years. Now lets see if I can turn all of this running into some new masters personal records.

Number 2: Rocky Hill Long Runs on Saturday mornings. When I think back over the past 30 years of running, I am always drawn back to this one location as the place where my competitive fires were tempered and fortified as my body learned to deal with the demands of task that I chose to pursue. Now as a seasoned veteran of many more miles than I could ever imagine that my body would ever cover, I return each week to pay homage to all the dreams that were birthed, came to pass and died on both freezing cold winter mornings and scorching summer nights engulfed in the citrus aroma that penetrates the senses in the midst of a shower of sweat. Plus, it was on the backside of this central San Joaquin Valley running landmark that the legend of the Albino Kenyan was born.

Number 1: Running at Lake Hodges with my Sonoma State teammate and friend, Phil. Without a doubt, this was the best experience of this past year in my running life. For a few short days in December, I got to experience that feeling of being 21 again as we ran, laughed, and joked as if we were still kids in college. I have been blessed to have known many people over the past 30 years of running, but very few come close to being as such a good teammate and better yet, a great friend than Phil. So Phil, thanks for a great two days of running and taking this old runner down memory lane and reminding me why I love this sport!

So here I go again. Time to begin another year of lacing up the Nikes and heading out to the roads, trails, track and canals to put one foot in front of the other in my favorite fashion, fast. As always, stay healthy, keep running and I hope your running life year is as blessed as my past year was.