Can You Give Me an Idea

My evening was filled with opening statements. We have a mock tort trial at the end of the month and tonight was a dry rehearsal of our opening statements. Fourteen students X 6 minutes each + critique = ONE LONG NIGHT. Then, a dash back home in record time to watch "The Office."

The final two law courses in my law school life are just sucking my blogging energy dry. All I want to do tonight is pour a small glass of Grand Marnier, watch a little t.v. and continue reading about Ceausescu in "Red Horizons."

But no, who should turn to me and respond to my simple, non-technical concerned question about her computer,
"I can't update the software on my computer tonight. It will shut everything down, and I won't be able to get anything done."
"Get anything done? Like what?"
"I'm going to work on my blog. I'm feeling sarcastic tonight."

Since then, she's been typing and giggling nonstop.   I've since poured a glass and am waiting to hear what she'll write.  I asked her for a suggestion to get my ideas going tonight, but I don't think she noticed.

Trials or Trails

I've been mispelling and mixing these two words since January.  Both have been on my mind a lot.  Both have dictated a lot of my life lately.  

One of my last classes in law school is Legal Practicum.  It involves working on multiple cases, most of which involve some form of litigation.  Litigations involve trials.  Thus, I end up writing the word "trial" quite often.

This year, Pete and I have our eyes on running a few more trail races than last year.  We've been able to run almost every Monday on the trails at Wild River.  Thus, I end up thinking about trails quite often.

A trail run can be something of a trial, in the non-legal sense.  I'm not certain how a trial is like a trail, except that, at the end of this month I have a 5 hour trial and that seems about as long as some trail runs.  (but not as enjoyable)

The Sweetness of Growing Slow

Today, Marty and I went on a run together.  In a different time and different life, we rarely ran together.  My pride came along as person number three  and Marty was usually the crowd.  

Now, one of my goals is to run more slowly, and I usually succeed.  In a great twist of fate, Marty now waits up for me and grows tired of all my walking!

 

We had lots of time to talk today. I got caught up on a few of her concerns about the kids.


Much of this run was on the road. I miss the trails.

Monday Morning

Pete and I get our long run in this morning. It works for both of us and our families.

The Trail. Today the trail was almost impassable.



We ran 4.5 miles on it and then jumped on to a gravel road. The next 15 miles were on gravel and a little pavement, out and back. None of the last sentence is very good for me. Going out it was windy and beginning to snow. Most of the snow fell on our right shoulders and backs. The road was in good shape. No military helicopters diving and circling this week. A couple of guys building a shed in a horse pasture.



We ran to the Sunrise Cemetery, turned around, and then took a few pictures as we ran back through the Sunrise. The naturalist at Wild River, David Marker, told us today that Sunrise did have several commercial enterprises...in the 1890s.






The Sunrise River


Sunrise almost had a president


The "Almost President"


The return... WINDY, SNOWY, SLOPPY, WET. We couldn't wear sunglasses because the snow caked up on them, but without glasses, the snow hit our eyes, forcing them closed.


Back to the beginning

Scanning

Our church, no, more accurately, those who regularly attend our church have a common, seemingly innocuous but disturbing characteristic. Yes, I'm mentioning it on this blog site for two reasons. First, it does have to do with running; more accurately, with the type of living that running oftentimes creates. Second, I possess this common, seemingly innocuous but disturbing characteristic myself.

Two disparate events in the last 24 hours brought this concern into focus in my mind.

The second event, which I'll mention first, came to me as I listened to Samantha Power, on MPR's Midmorning, talk about Sergio Vieira de Mello, a member of a UN envoy killed in Iraq. Among other things, Samantha described Sergio as an atypical UN official and went on to say that he was the type of person who would enter a room full of people and make many people feel important. Specifically to my point, when Sergio was talking with a particular person, he made that person feel like they had his complete attention and that it pained him to leave this particular conversation. It did not matter if the person were a diplomat or a destitute refugee.

This second event reminded me of the first event which I observed last night after our church's Wednesday Night Connection service. As people were congregating, I noticed Pastor Piper talking with a young boy in the commons area. As I walked by, I watched one thing: Pastor Piper's eyes. (Now I've tipped my hat to the problem mentioned earlier) As Pastor Piper was engaged with this young boy, I noticed two teenagers beeline toward the pair. Several minutes later as I returned from the nursery, I watched Pastor Piper's eyes once again. His eyes were riveted on the person with whom he was speaking.

Now, I've noticed his intense, discriminating concentration when he talks with people at the front of the church after each service. In a sense, it would be expected. But here he was, in the middle of the commons, with at least 80 people buzzing around, and his attention was spot-lighting one young boy and then two teenagers.

So, here's the problem. We at Bethlehem have developed a bad habit, at least while we are at church. It is the habit of scanning the crowd while talking with a particular person. It really bothered me when we first attended regularly. I don't notice it much anymore, but I fear this is because I do it also. It is very difficult to believe that someone is empathizing with me if they are not looking at me. Unless we are sitting and talking, and then it's not so important to be looking right at each other. Otherwise, it feels as if the "scanner" is looking for someone more important.

So, this is where I think this problem does have something to do with the type of living running often creates. Running often makes the rest of life slow down, acquire a more vivid hue, and relationships often become a little more full. It might be endorphins, or maybe being alone out on the trail/road for too long. Whatever the reason, I find myself slowing down with people more.

I've come up with only two solutions to our scanning at church:
1. Everyone goes on a quick run right after the service but before talking in the common,
2. Set up lounge chairs all over the commons area so we can sit and talk but not necessarily look at each other.

I think #1 might work as long as we don't mind errant smells. The problem I see with #2 is that, "If you give a mouse a lounge chair, he's going to want a cocktail to go with it." And I've always taken an uncompromising position against consuming alcohol openly while at church.

Afton

Pete pointed me to the new Afton Trail website. It's nicely done.

I almost registered for the 50K just looking at the site. However, in light of other training runs, the potential for heat and Leadville one month later, I'll error on the side of discretion and do the 25K.

The site has great photos.

Monday Morning

On Monday, Pete and I cranked out 20 miles at Wild River State Park.  It is an impressive park.  For over 10 miles, we snaked our way north on a snow covered trail.  To our right was the St. Croix River.  We see the abandoned Arrow Railway from Minneapolis to Duluth.  The end of the railway is right on the trail, and right before it required an expensive iron bridge to cross the river.  There's an ancient Indian settlement somewhere around, several fur posts, and an abandoned town that had a hotel.  Is it possible to run with a metal detector?  

We exited the park at its northern entrance, ran through the small town of Sunrise and returned on gravel and paved roads. 

The first 10 miles were some of the most difficult I have ever run.  For the first 5 miles, we "scatter stepped" through ski tracks, snow shoe tracks, boot tracks, deer tracks, turkey tracks, coyote tracks and some unidentifiable tracks.  Lots of tracks.  Whoever would come after us would have to add trail running shoe tracks to their list of tracks.

For the next 5 miles, we encountered no tracks but our own (if you look backward).  However, this made things worse.  Each step consisted of: an initial crusty, seemingly stable surface plant; the foot punching through the aforementioned; the foot traveling through soft under-snow as if it were powdered sugar; the foot coming back up through the powdered sugar; and the foot trying to ascend through more crusty surface-snow along the toe area.

By the time we reached pavement, my legs were like ground beef.

Between miles 10.7 and 13, we tried to stride out on a road that, while plowed, was most likely plowed by a zamboni. [word has it that Martin Zellar is performing at LumberJack Days this year] The gravel road from Sunrise, MN back to the south entrance of Wild River is incredible: rolling hills, lined by pine trees, farms, and several large lots for sale.

We finish the run with a protein infested meal at a little cafe in Taylor's Falls.