Appalachian Trail Run...and Being a Good Animal

[photo by Gary]

You kinda had to be there for this rollicking run over hill and dale for some 19+ miles, from Pine Grove Furnace State Park south to Caledonia State Park, in southern PA. 

The weather was wintry, in the upper teens at the start, dropping some as we gained altitude on the ridgetops, and with up to 3" of snow in spots.  The snow was fairly trampled, as the AT had obviously been recently well traveled despite it being mid-winter.

Besides my companionable companions, the highlights of the day for me were just covering some beautiful trail miles, drinking from a couple spring-fed streams, the brilliantly deep blue sky.  But mostly, I guess, the satisfaction that comes from the words of Dr. George Sheehan (the running philosopher from the initial boom of the 1970s), who challenged us: "First being a good animal."

On the trail on Monday, I was a good animal.  My mind was sharp, my feet sure, and I felt full of the possible.  It doesn't get any better than that.

With this run under my belt, the Seneca Trail 50K in 2 weeks is well within my comfort range at my present level of training.

Luck...and Ultrarunning

Via Refdesk, my home page when I fire up the Internet, and drilling down to Thought of the Day for 10 Jan 2011:

"People always call it luck when you've acted more sensibly than they have." - Anne Tyler

This is along the same lines as reaping what you sow, or fortune smiles on the prepared.  In Ultrarunning, that means to be prepared mentally and physically for all your races.  You do your homework, you train, you crosstrain, you get your head into the course.

Then when race day comes, in the immortal words of Dr. George Sheehan, you "...look to the day when it all is suddenly as easy as a bird in flight."

 

As Easy as a Bird in Flight

(Photo credit here)

Several weeks ago I put up a series of 3 posts (here, here and here) listing some quotes that I found personally meaningful, from the late Dr. George Sheehan. He pretty much was the philosophical running guru of my formative running years in the 1980s. And although he never seemed to have discovered trail running, I always will be grateful to him for articulating the mental aspects of running in a way that I could relate to.

I hope that younger runners today still recognize the name and his work, and the impact that he had during the running boom of the 70s and 80s.

My favorite quote, that I would like to again highlight:

For every runner who tours the world running marathons, there are thousands who run to hear leaves and listen to rain and look to the day when it all is suddenly as easy as a bird in flight. For them, sport is not a test but a therapy; not a trial but a reward; not a question but an answer.

Old George got it absolutely right--big events are nice and fun and motivating and something to look forward to, but it is your everyday running that in essence pays the bills. If you don't derive sufficient reward from your everyday running, then I think you're in trouble.

I get rejuvenated every single run by the leaves and the rain...by thinking about as much or as little as my mind desires....and the feeling that I get, on a good day, that it all is as easy as a bird in flight.

Homage to Dr. George Sheehan (Part 3 of 3)

This is the 3rd of 3 posts. Part 1 is here and Part 2 is here. I'll repeat the intro below:

Back in my road racing days, before I saw the light and embraced UltraRunning, the poet-philosopher of the running boom was Dr. George Sheehan. This post is in his honor.


He was a prolific author of running books, focusing on the mental aspects of running, and was a regular contributor to Runner's World. I had several of his books and would reread them frequently, especially prior to a marathon, as the message never seemed to get old. Here are some of my all-time favorite quotes, excerpted from Running and Being--the Total Experience, by Dr. George Sheehan. These are timeless and equally apply to a 50 miler as to a road race.

I'll limit the quotes to 5, a short manageable number, and divvy up the list into 3 posts, on March 4th, 6th and 8th:

11. The man who has not seen the road in the early light of morning, cool and living between two rows of trees, does not know the meaning of hope.

12. When you see me, that lonely figure out on the road, I am looking for my territory, my self, the person I must be. There I am no longer the observer watching myself think and talk and react. I am not the person others see and meet and even love. There I am whole; I am finally who I am. And there I encounter myself. That encounter is a deep place totally isolated which cannot be understood or touched by others, a place that cannot be described as much as experienced, a state that philosophers describe as solitude.

13. I know that there is an answer to my odd union of animal and angel, my mysterious mixture of body and consciousness, my perplexing amalgam of material and spirit. And if for now that answer is only for the moment and only for me in my lowest common denominator, me the runner, it is still enough.

14. I look for those answers on the roads. I take my tools of sight, hearing, touch, smell, taste and intellect and run with them. And I leave behind whatever I own, forgetting whatever I thought valuable, whatever I held dear. Naked, or almost, I come upon a new world. There on a country road, moving at eight miles an hour, I discover the total universe, the natural and the supernatural that wise men speculate about. It is a life, a world, a universe that begins on the other side of sweat and exhaustion.

15. And that perhaps is the essence of the running experience for me, and any number of different experiences for other people. The lack of anxiety, the complete acceptance, the letting go and the faith that all will be well. In running, I feel free. I have no other goal, no other reward. The running is its own reason for being.

Homage to Dr. George Sheehan (Part 2 of 3)

This is the 2nd of 3 posts. Part 1 is here. I'll repeat the intro here:

Back in my road racing days, before I saw the light and embraced UltraRunning, the poet-philosopher of the running boom was Dr. George Sheehan. This post is in his honor.


He was a prolific author of running books, focusing on the mental aspects of running, and was a regular contributor to Runner's World. I had several of his books and would reread them frequently, especially prior to a marathon, as the message never seemed to get old. Here are some of my all-time favorite quotes, excerpted from Running and Being--the Total Experience, by Dr. George Sheehan. These are timeless and equally apply to a 50 miler as to a road race.

I'll limit the quotes to 5, a short manageable number, and divvy up the list into 3 posts, on March 4th, 6th and 8th:

6. “Ted Williams,” wrote John Updike, “is the classic player on a hot August weekday when the only thing at stake is the tissue-thin difference between a thing done well and a thing done ill. Because he was one of those who always cared, who care about themselves and their art.”

7. Being an athlete introduces another decisive element. The runner-doctor knows that health has nothing to do with disease. Health has to do with functioning and wholeness and reaching your level of excellence. My health has to do with my life style, with moderation of my soul and the body. It is a matter of discipline of my total person. And my health can be maximized even when disease is present. There is, I find, a healthy way to live your disease. Disease may change or modify my excellence, but it does not remove excellence as a possibility.

8. “There are thresholds which thought alone can never permit us to cross,” wrote Gabriel Marcel. “An experience is needed.”

9. I suddenly found what must be the essence of running. I would, I said to myself, just concentrate on finding the perfect running form. I would find the pace at which I could run forever. Then let my inner body take over.

10. And in this perfection, this ease of movement, this harmony, this rhythmic breathing of life into life, I am able to let my mind wander. I absent myself from road and wind and the warm sun. I am free to meditate, to measure the importance of things.

Homage to Dr. George Sheehan (Part 1 of 3)

Back in my road racing days, before I saw the light and embraced UltraRunning, the poet-philosopher of the running boom was Dr. George Sheehan. This post is in his honor.

He was a prolific author of running books, focusing on the mental aspects of running, and was a regular contributor to Runner's World. I had several of his books and would reread them frequently, especially prior to a marathon, as the message never seemed to get old. Here are some of my all-time favorite quotes, excerpted from Running and Being--the Total Experience, by Dr. George Sheehan. These are timeless and equally apply to a 50 miler as to a road race.

I'll limit the quotes to 5, a short manageable number, and divvy up the list into 3 separate posts, on March 4th, 6th and 8th.:

1. "There are days when you can't get the ball in the basket, no matter how hard you try,” a basketball coach once told me. “But there is no excuse for not playing good defense.”

2. We are born, I suspect, with a built-in longevity quotient, which we can diminish but not increase. We are born, it seems to me, with an appointed time when noise will develop in the signals sent by our messenger RNA. When the song the molecules sing will no longer be heard by the cells. Disease, disintegration and death follow.....so let us forget about longevity.....it is not how long you live, but how you played the game.

3. The opportunity to encounter and deal with pain is one of the aspects that makes the running experience ultimately so satisfactory.

4. For every runner who tours the world running marathons, there are thousands who run to hear leaves and listen to rain and look to the day when it all is suddenly as easy as a bird in flight. For them, sport is not a test but a therapy; not a trial but a reward; not a question but an answer.

5. I am ready to start a new religion, the first law of which is, “Play regularly.” An hour’s play a day makes a man whole and healthy and long-lived. A man’s exercise must be play, or it will do him little good.