Tomorrow's Land

Tomorrow is January 20 ... finally tomorrow.

The sun comes shining as I was strolling
The wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling
The fog was lifting a voice come chanting
This land was made for you and me.

– This Land is Your Land, Woody Guthrie

4:04:50 PM   permalink: []   feedback:   comments: []  

Baby Steps

I fell on my face in 2003 in the dark on the trail after tripping on a bit of limestone poking up thru the gravel. I had trained all summer harder than I had ever trained before. The race was my second slowest ever. The spell was broken, and it's been mostly downhill since.

Surgery in 2004. And a long recovery. And my hormones were messed up. And I started gaining weight. And my running legs are gone. And when I did try to run, it hurt, each time someplace else.

Then more surgery in 2007, for something else. And a long recovery. And my hormones were messed up worse. And the trend line for my weight kept climbing. And I forgot what running legs felt like. And I turned away when I looked at myself in the mirror.

And then the radiation therapy.

March 29th will be my fiftieth birthday, and there's a race that day, a race I first ran when I first came to Austin many years ago. We are going to run it, Trudy and I. We have started training -- sometimes running, sometimes doing something else, often times sitting in a bubbling hot tub hoping it won't hurt too much tomorrow.

I close my mind to the running legs I used to have and the routes I used to run. And I waddle along the trail. And what do you know, each time it's just a little easier than the last: a little less waddle and a little more jog, each baby step a little stronger than the last.

12:19:33 AM   permalink: []   feedback:   comments: []