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A Tired Dog is a Good Dog. And I Am a Dog.

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Yesterday, while out for a trail run, I was reminded of the old saying “a tired dog is a good dog”. For some reason, I always forget that I need physical exertion daily in order to be somebody worth being around. In the absence of making time to be alone outdoors, I can easily become a very bad dog. I become cranky and irritable and then proceed to bark at people, saying things I later regret. But the warm, settled feeling of a well-earned fatigue always takes my edge off, allowing me to be the person I would rather be. Maybe running is not your thing, and that’s okay. Any intentional, well-chosen effort can lead to a satisfying fatigue that can calm the wildest of beasts.

So what about you? How do you keep your inner dog at bay?

House of Pain

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Runner crossing a Fakahatchee prairie

When running an ultramarathon, you build a house of pain and learn to make it your home. I kept reminding myself of this while participating in the 2017 Everglades Ultras 50K trail run. Pain came in the form of a tight left quadricep that never loosened up and pain rained down from above as the sun baked me while running across the open prairies of Fakahatchee Strand State Park.

A runner must befriend pain to be successful in completing an ultra. Pain is the house that we build by putting our body and mind up to an intense physical challenge. The foundation of the house are the hundreds of training miles stretched out behind us. We hammer the nails in the walls with each step we take towards the finish line. From within these walls, there are windows into our soul and doorways that can lead us in new directions.

But this house of pain is only a temporary dwelling. We make it a home and learn to be comfortable with the discomfort. If we put our energy into trying to reject this place, we will miss out on all the lessons it has to teach us.

The end of the run will come. All things do pass. So enjoy your house of pain during your stay. Revel in it. Let it be your classroom. Look out its windows and see that many of your fears are smoke and mirrors and your daily worries trivial things. When you leave, walk out its door stronger than you could have ever imagined.

Why I Run: Part 4

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Running in standing water

This is part four of a series answering the question of Why I
Run

Running has been humbling recently. I am one week away from the Everglades Ultras and I already feel like I've got a DNF (Did Not Finish). Last week I struggled to finish a 17 mile training run. My exhaustion brought me to tears by my perceived failure. I felt as if I had fallen so far. How could someone who completed a mountainous 100 mile run through thunder and hail struggle so much to finish doing 17 miles on flat terrain? No matter how much I might want to hang on to who I was just 8 months ago, that person is gone. The body I now inhabit is not the same as the one of last summer. Running's latest lesson for me is about impermanence.

When I signed up for The Everglades Ultras, I planned to run the 50 mile version of the race, but I’ve come to realize that just completing the 30 mile variation will be a struggle for me right now. I worked hard for six months preparing to run The Bryce 100. I was focused in my approach to training and got up to run despite the cold of winter, the snow and ice on the ground, or my own desire to just sleep in a little later. My body and mind adapted and got stronger. I changed who I was.

But nothing stays the same, no matter how much we wish that it would. In the months since Bryce, I approached my running as a casual endeavor and when I began preparing for the Everglades Ultras, I allowed a busy schedule and lack of discipline to prevent me from putting in the miles required to be fully prepared. Once again, I changed who I was.

Life is change. Nothing stays still. Everything is in motion, including the composition of our bodies and minds. Everyday the decisions we make affect who we are and how we impact the people and the world around us. Achievements don't last, but fortunately neither do failures. Each moment we have a choice, and those choices effect a change in who we are.

Impermanence can be a disturbing aspect of life, but it also creates new opportunities. We are not stuck with who we are and we can change our situation if we are not satisfied with it. Change will happen regardless of what we do or don't do so we might as well take some responsibility for what direction we move in. To be healthy, we must choose wisely what we put in our mouths and what we do with our bodies. To live a fulfilling life, we must decide how to spend the limited amount of time we are allotted. We can choose to be positive, even when our initial reactions to a situation might dictate otherwise. Each choice, each decision we make causes a change, and over time, these changes help to create who we are.

Are there changes you want to make in your life?

What choices will lead to that change?