Life Lessons

I'm noticing that many of the things that end up helping me get through a day come from surprising sources. Moments from my distant past that seem like they should only be a part of the past end up surfacing day by day.

Example: Cross Country - My Cross Country "career" consisted of 2 seasons as an Ohio Northern University Polar Bear. I went out for the team for a variety of reasons -

• It was my first Fall in a new school and I didn't know anybody.
• Although we didn't have XC (that's how the insiders talk) at McComb High School, I had eventually become a 2-Miler in Track (after discovering that I was not built for speed, but I did have some slight talent for endurance).
• It was an open invitation - anyone could walk on.
• I was bored.
• I didn't know (fortunately) that the Races were 5 miles long.

There was not a lot of intensive coaching involved for XC, at least 'back in the day' - we mostly ran long distances, tried to take care of our feet, and took fistfuls of the salt tablets that used to sit around in locker rooms.

One piece of advice, though, comes back to me almost every day:

Even if you have to slow to a walk,

DON'T STOP.

Maybe it comes back because of the number of days when I am slowed to a walk - or a crawl - and the temptation to just pack it in is VERY great. Although my XC career was brief, it's impact shows up on days like today, when I'm hauling around the equivalent (in weight) of 2 of the 'me' I was when I was running, but I still finished the first non-interrupted week of my Walking for Your Life program (which is what it seems like - a walking program aimed at putting off being dead for as long as possible).

What I'm doing shouldn't seem hard - but if you can imagine walking for 1/2-hour twice a day with a beach ball made out of lead tied around your waist, you can get some idea of the difference between me now & me as a Polar Bear - so sometimes hearing the advice above is what makes it possible to take one more step - & to edge closer to life than death. I recommend it.