Life: It's What You Make It/It's All About the Journey

I don't know if it's all the college and high school commencement speeches being written and delivered this time of year or what, but Spring brings more than flowers and sunshine.  With the dawning of summer it seems that every year some really compelling, truthful and inspirational thoughts start popping up all over the place.

I am not talking about some soft-core Green Day song that pisses off all of their "hardcore" fans.

I am talking about stuff like this guy's commencement speech in which he essentially tells all the graduates of the H.S. he works at: big f'in' deal, you're not special.  everyone is.  the "pursuit" of happiness is what it's all about so forget the happiness part and start relentlessly pursuing.

What's this got to do with running?  This post does a good job linking all this happiness and pusuit talk with the idea that we are Born to Run.  Those of us who have chosen to run, or take advantage of our "born" ability/talent/god-given right, (depending on how you look at) know that setting a goal is the easiest part--it's the "going for it" that can be tough.  But it's the "going for it", or the pursuit, that makes the eventual achievement so glorious and enriching.

To an extent both articles touch on modern Americans increasingly becoming accolade mongers who merely jump from one gig to the next in order to scratch it off the list and show the world what they can do; all without passionately devoting themselves to the moment and really proving to themselves what excellence they are capable of accomplishing. 

Culture/society: Please don't lower the bar so we can all win a trophy.  We'd all be a lot more "special" if we spent all of our lives busting our humps to raise the bar.

On a lighter note the king of "You're Special" gets a digital remix:

I actually took alot of this guys messages to heart as a kid, even if I am not really all that special.   

1/2 year review: the numbers

Got the calculator out to see where I was at in my miles logged for the year so far... 

First a disclaimer:  I know I've missed an entry or two and I have had a tendency to round down workouts until I recently got a garmin watch.  I am so sorry decimals, you really do count.  You probably totalled up to be something significant and since my watch sees value in measuring you I'll now include you too!  I also don't count walking miles which thanks to Pete (the pup) have surely amounted to something significant this year.

That said, since the 12:00 AM Beer Mile on New Years Eve I've logged 692.1 miles.  I didn't want to get overly analytical about my running habits and it isn't about the numbers for me but I wanted to see where I was at in my initial goal to run 1200 miles (a 5k a day average) this year.  Turns out I may need to reevaluate things and raise the bar.

But like I said it isn't about numbers for me.  I've had a blast running each and everyone of these miles.  Sure some were more picturesque like the ones that crested the ridge in Sisters on a clear day exposing 5-6 glorious Cascade peaks and some were a bit less exciting like the laps around the track just a stone's throw from home when I swore off hills for a week trying not to aggrivate a sore Achilles.  Some were filled with glory like the last mile of my first Mac 50k and others were simply trudging along trying to get back home before getting soaked with snow and rain.  But they've all been instrumental in my quest for optimal endurance.

Summer's right around the corner and the best is yet to come!