Earlier this month, I was just jogging along, a few days before my birthday, reflecting on growing up and growing older. At some point, I was struck by how long I had been running, not on this particular day but in life. Sometime this past fall I had slipped quietly past my 30th running anniversary.
Running a 50k on my own forced me to confront and manage my own negative and self-defeating thoughts without that in-the-moment support from my partner that I had grown so used to, which was valuable, important, and above all, exhausting.
When I learned there was a trail going the length of Cañon de Río Lobos, I knew I wanted to run it. Luckily I got a chance early in May.
After we explored some villages of the pre-Pyrenees by car, I decided to spend the following couple days exploring some more on foot. I had been especially eager to go into the hills on the opposite side of the main road since it is an area that would be completely new to me, and I noticed on our maps that the GR 15 runs through that area.
As I mentioned last week in my winter’s lament, I have recently started training for a 50k, which is part of my goals for this year. I’m about three weeks in, just starting the fourth week, which is thankfully a down week, and I’m so incredibly full of energy. But why a 50k?
The Happy Runner by David and Megan Roche is probably the best book about running that is also about much more than running. Their outlook and messages can be broadly applied outside of running. I believe this book, especially the first half, will resonate with all who strive for anything, whether your pursuits are athletic, creative, or just living.
A few weeks ago, I completed my planned goals for the beginning of 2021. First, the Spring CMTR Scavenger Hunt, which is more or less documented on my Instagram. But the real highlight of my goals for this year was running the Cuerda Larga or, as I like to call it, 10 miles of power …