“We must embrace pain and use it as fuel for our journey.” -Kenji Miyazawa
“Pain passes, but the beauty remains.” -Renoir
Archive for the 'quotes' Category
It’s okay to be beat by the heat. Even when it’s only 67°F. I put off my 12 mile run yesterday because I was under the mistaken impression that it was supposed to be 50°F and partly sunny. I ran anyway, and basically had to walk a lot and go a lot slower than planned. Yeah, that 1:29:59 meant nothing today. Complete scratch. The plan was to run 7, get Guinness, then finish the last 5, killing two birds with one stone, as it were. NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO. I could not get my lungs to open up, I was exhausted, I felt bad, I walked, etc…All the things that make you feel like a “bad” runner. I didn’t feel bad this time. I finished and took the dog to the P-A-R-K. I met some very nice dog owners. I had a pleasant afternoon. I do not hate myself, in spite of my usual pattern. I gave up this run to heat and whatever crap is living in the air right now. The paper tells me that the air quality is just fine, but I DO NOT BELIEVE THEM!!! To sum up: 12 mile run, turned into a 7 mile run. Cleaning finished, pleasant dog park experience, new job applied for (barely hopeful for this), information gathering finished, She Runs meeting done. All in all it was a job done.
“Failure is instructive. The person who really thinks learns quite as much from his failures as from his successes.” - John Dewey
“There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.” - Peter Drucker
That’s all I can say about the debates tonight. Palin makes me want to throw up. In fact, I may have just thrown up a little in my mouth. That’s really all I can say.
I have some posts about “The Plaid Pant Runner” to come. WHAT?!?! Only running EIGHT MILES to date before a major marathon?!?!?! WHAT?!?!?! Oh my f*%cking GAWD. There is a reckoning to be had. There are posts to follow. There is the RESPECT issue to deal with…
“Nothing in the world is more dangerous than a sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.” -MLK Jr.
“Yes, you need to respect the marathon. I have been on a bike long enough to know that it can drain you more than a 100-kilometer ride does. There’s no freewheeling in running, there’s no coasting in a marathon or even in a 10k. You don’t move your feet, you stop. There are no wheels that will move you forward on momentum. You just have to keep running, and all that pounding on pavement, all that punishment to your legs and feet -not to mention your quads- will surely take its toll in time.” http://caloybsecondwind.blogspot.com/
(We may need to link to this blog. This person is f*&cking hardcore.)
This is about the debates…
“What is objectionable, what is dangerous, about extremists is not that they are extreme, but that they are intolerant. The evil is not what they say about their cause, but what they say about their opponents.”
Robert Francis Kennedy quotes ( U.S. attorney general and adviser, 1925-1968)
Debate aside, quotes aside, cycling aside…
You will never know the misery, joy, pain, depth, despair, agony, perseverance, fortitude, and greatness of the marathon if you have not put in the time and training. The true meaning of the marathon will forever elude you if you are not willing to give up a small amount of yourself to the greater meaning. To me, the marathon is a lot like water, especially after this last canoe trip. It can break you, or it can sustain you, and a million other things. So much to know. So much to understand. 8 miles will never give you the knowing or the understanding.
**Oh, and scrap the 12 with Toots…on to 18 with Toots!!!
I did 10 miles in 1:29:59. Ha! They have me listed as 207, but I’m actually 205, because my time was faster than the two gals listed as 205 and 206. Not sure I get it, but that’s okay. I’m glad I’ve been running trail…there were lots of slow, steady hill climbs (which I LOVE LOVE LOVE), and the weather was perfect…50s and drizzle. She Runs may have also recruited a crap ton of volunteers and possibly some more girls! I don’t want to write much…I’m pretty tired.
On to 12 with Toots!
“Plunge boldly into the thick of life, and seize it where you will, it is always interesting.” Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
“Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.” T. S. Eliot
Guinness and I did one of our faster 3 milers. It reassured me that I’m not totally falling apart yet, and may have some motor left for the next couple of races. I don’t have much to post about running, but I have some quotes today. I’m running in a 10 mile race tomorrow and sitting at a table for She Runs. We’re giving away information and ponytail holders. I’m hoping we actually recruit GIRLS and not just all coaches and board members!
Most men take the straight and narrow. A few take the road less traveled. I chose to cut through the woods. -Unknown
The footing was really atrocious. I loved it. I really like Cross Country; you’re one with the mud. -Lynn Jennings
It is a rough road that leads to the heights of greatness. -Seneca
Finally!!! That’s how long it took me to get here! It’s been a while since I really enjoyed my weekend long run and I just ran a great 13 miler. I’m not sure exactly what made it so great except for the fact that I thoroughly enjoyed myself. It wasn’t my fastest, nor was I in top form, I didn’t even change my route…as a matter of fact, I’d had a tough week battling a sinus/head congestion and I’d had some crappy midweek runs feeling tired and sleep deprived. I took it easy on Saturday, did nothing all day but sleep in, go to Punxsk8erdude’s soccer game and vegetate in front of the TV. I slept in again on Sunday and actually did not get out to run until around 7:30 in the evening. By then the sun was setting (beautiful sunset by the way), it had cooled down considerably (some sort of a front blew in), AND there was virtually NO HUMIDITY!!! I was breathing easy and my legs felt stronger than ever before. Oh yeah, and I ran the last mile with my hair down. It was that good.
“Surely the strange beauty of the world must somewhere rest on pure joy!” -Louise Bogan, What the Woman Lived
These are some direct quotes, some are casual observations that I have had since I’ve been back in “civilization;”
“Oh my Gawd; my bathwater is GRAY.” (First bath after my return)
“We could seriously sell all this fur on the floor to someone who could weave.”
Things are so loud.
I have a great life.
“Holy crap, I really did lose about 10-15 pounds. I wasn’t exaggerating!”
“How can I buy local produce when we don’t produce melons in Minnesota?!?!?!”
“I wonder if everyone else is slightly overwhelmed right now…?”
What challenges are left?
“Shouldn’t I not be tired anymore?”
How soon can I get back out on the water? Can I teach Lumpy how to read class II and III water?
I wish I had run more rapids.
I wish I could have brought the Berens River village puppies home with me. Gordon and Buster. They need me. They want me. They should be at my house. G and I could train them to be wonderful runners.
“Lumpy and I should figure out how to make Lily a therapy cat.”
“I can’t believe that Amy thought that I was one of the ’solid’ and ’steady’ members of our trip…”
Geez, I missed my animals. And My Lumpy.
I learned so much about water. That’s another full post itself. Water. Everywhere. Water.
I feel like I’m living…really, really living.
Boy, oh boy, did I miss you all. I sent flowers down the river for Pito at the beginning, and each one went down a waterfall or rapid…it was the only thing I knew to do for him and for myself while I was out there. (Side note: I just found out that Lulu has cancer. Keep her in your thoughts, and if you pray, please pray for her. Losing Pito and Lucette in this short amount of time might be more than I can handle.)
I believe that one of life’s greatest risks is never daring to risk. -Oprah Winfrey
The biggest adventure you can ever take is to live the life of your dreams. - ” ”
Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that all was vanity; but the dreamers of day are dangerous men, for they act their dream with eyes wide open and make it possible. - T. E. Lawrence (of Arabia)
We may have a temporary silence due to lack of time, worry about Pito, other things, and in Sally’s case, a trip to the unknown in Canada.
We all may not be posting for a while.
We’re all thinking about the important things.
Support is here when needed.
While Sally is gone, Lumpy is standing in Sally’s stead, so if Lumpy is needed, please prevail upon him.
Time is a companion that goes with us on a journey. It reminds us to cherish each moment, because it will never come again. What we leave behind is not as important as how we have lived. ” played by Patrick Stewart, from the film “Star Trek: Generations”
Dorothy Thompson:Courage, it would seem, is nothing less than the power to overcome danger, misfortune, fear, injustice, while continuing to affirm inwardly that life with all its sorrows is good; that everything is meaningful even if in a sense beyond our understanding; and that there is always tomorrow.
Harry Emerson Fosdick:Nothing else matters much — not wealth, nor learning, nor even health — without this gift: the spiritual capacity to keep zest in living. This is the creed of creeds, the final deposit and distillation of all important faiths: that you should be able to believe in life.
Not entirely appropriate for the moment, yet for me, it is…
“I’ve got the whole universe. Planets to save. Civilizations to rescue. … And an awful lot of running to do.”
-Jenny, The Doctor’s Daughter
Seems to me that sums up here nicely. We’ve a whole universe before us. We’ve a planet to save. And a civilization to rescue.
Oh, and an awful lot of running to do.
Here are some quotes:
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” — Mark Twain I’m so worried about missing something. People at REI ask me why I travel, and others that I meet…you all know, here, that we travel because we have to, etc………………………
I do not ever want to get to the end of my life and realize that I had some kind of opportunity that I missed that I could have taken or that I disregarded because I thought, “Oh, I shouldn’t. I have X responsibility, or I have Y thing that I have not yet taken care of…”
Maybe that’s why Toots is running never-ending marathons. I worry about this a little, I have to admit. I worry about the stress to your body. …Another discussion for another wine-laden evening. Either way, some of us have to go further and push and run and travel and taste and breathe and live something that is beyond ourselves… we are those people. We are The Limit. We are The Great Experiment. We must know what happens after the normal human experiment. I plan on Dublin ‘09 being my own next marathon experiment/race, but there is much more between. Frankly, doing French teaching, Running for Women, She Runs, and working is pushing beyond. Frankly, being a mom, running, working, living with people who need you, is going beyond. I feel like we’re all tired, and we all have stuff to deal with, yet we come here and post and go beyond.
“Let your memory be your travel bag.” — Alexander Solzhenitsyn -Why not have a purely Russian quote when I’m going to Russia???!!!!
“Like all great travelers, I have seen more than I remember, and remember more than I have seen.” – Benjamin Disraeli
“All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware.” — Martin Buber
“A man of ordinary talent will always be ordinary, whether he travels or not; but a man of superior talent (which I cannot deny myself to be without being impious) will go to pieces if he remains forever in the same place.” — Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart ***I’m willing to put myself, Toots, Lumpy, and Banana in this same category. Am I being cocky?????!!!!
“Why is it that traveling Americans are always so dreadful?” — Dodsworth by Sinclair Lewis
OOOOOH, This is my dread, traveling in the summer in Europe. May Lumpy and I blend with appropriateness. Please, dear lords and goddesses. Continue reading ‘I’m staying up as late as I can.’
