Phedippidations

Today we’ll hear from six fellow runners (including myself) who will relate to you their personal stories about “Their First Times”.

Today is my 50th birthday. I was born at exactly 7:48 PM Eastern Standard Time in the maternity ward of Milton Hospital on Reedsdale Road and Highland Street in the town of Milton, Massachusetts on January 19th, 1962. Turning 50 feels good, because it’s good to be alive. The milestone reminds me to take a walk break in this race, and turn to look behind me to see how far I’ve come. The past 50 years of life included great joy, terrible sadness, and the agony and ecstasy of blood, sweat and tears…but I wouldn’t trade any of it. Regrets I have, many in fact: but those regrets are all part of a life well lived: a life, lived to its top.

We're traveling back in time on this episode; through six and a half years in PodCasting AND BEYOND!

When oenophiles think about wine, they rarely consider the sport of running with regards to it’s enjoyment; and when runners consider our passion for moving our bodies through space: the topic of wine is not chief among our hydration strategies. Yet these two areas of interest have their complementary intersections. In this epsiode we'll visit some "Cool Races in Beautiful Places" where wine grapes are grown.

In the summer of 1975 I was a 13 year old skinny, big eared, pimply-faced teenager with a frown full of braces and a head filled with big ideas. This was the first time I had ever been able to express my creativity to an audience greater than my immediate family, it was the first time I took a thought and converted it into something for others to experience. My words, my story, my imagines, my voice and that of my friends Andy and James…we created a movie that entertained our family, friends and neighborhood for one magical night in the summer of seventy-five: The Summer of the Shark.

Part two of a series of episode where we prepare ourselves to win an argument with a non-runner!

In order to start the conversation that plants the seed of an idea into someone’s head that they might want to begin the process to adopt the running life style, you need the right ammunition: you need to commit to memory at least a handful of logical arguments that will make your proposal effective and produce results.

“To be or not to be?”, that is only the second question we have to ask ourselves: the first is: Are we? or Are we not? Do we exist or is this all just a dream? Descartes had something to say about all this, and it’s to Descartes that we will go, as we begin to contemplate that one thing that makes us appreciate the way it feels to run across the Earth, to feel the sweat, effort and joy of getting our miles in and moving these bodies that we either are or inhabit. Descarte can help us begin the process of understanding why, as we run a race or by ourselves on the open road: we feel, very much alive.

In this episode I present for you an abridged for podcast version of Henry David Thoreau’s essay “A Walk to Wachusett”. As you listen to these words, think about the excursion you might make wherever you live; knowing that you could cover the distance on a long run, but instead taking the time to walk and explore the world around you. This is one of the great lessons of Thoreau: that we should savor the journey and experience our environment. It’s as Professor Nancy Etcoff said in my episode 274 on the Pursuit of Happiness: The pleasure system in our brain responds positively to the beauty of the natural world. I love to run, as I know you do: but maybe every once in a while we should slow down, and just go for a walk.

Philosophers have been asking the question “What is Truth” for thousands of years, as they try to determine if truth is subjective, objective, relative or absolute. I think that we, as runners: have a special opportunity to both ask and, in some specific way, at least, answer the question for ourselves. Truth can be found in the hard work and determination we put into every mile; truth can be understood based on our personal experiences about what we can achieve and the goals we can accomplish: and truth can be felt in the exhaustion, sweat, agony and tears associated with the triumphs and failures of a life on the road.