Ultrarunning is a Gift

"Who has told every lightening bolt where it should go,

Or seen heavenly storehouses laden with snow?"

"The earth shall soon dissolve like snow

The sun forbear to shine

But God, Who called me here below

Will be forever mine."

There are benefits to running beyond 26.2 that surpass fitness. 

 

I've seen parts of creation that I would not have seen otherwise: 

• snow covered mountain ranges • a baby black bear

• deer a plenty • a porcupine

• massive fields of pristine snow • groves of beach trees that look like paintings

• rushing streams & rivers • prairie grass frosted with dew

• eagles, falcons, hawks •snakes

• frozen rivers and lakes • clear, bright sunrises

• lightening storms rolling across CO mountains

The gift of the sacrifices of others on my behalf:

• a wife and family that not only manages when I'm gone, but puts up with me when I'm back

• friends and their friends who have crewed and paced

I've had countless hours alone to:

pray, enjoy creation, spend time with Pete, think, organize my thoughts, and grow lonely so that I can't wait to return home.

Ultrarunning is a gift.  Like all things, it is given in love.

Could we with ink the ocean fill,

And were the skies of parchment made,

Were every stalk on earth a quill,

And every man a scribe by trade,

To write the love of God above,

Would drain the ocean dry.

Nor could the scroll contain the whole,

Though stretched from sky to sky.

-Frederick Lehman, translation of a 1050 a.d. Jewish poem