Bouncing Far

His horn blew in my driveway at 9:02 Friday morning. Immediately I was out the door with all my stuff. Then Lolo Lubiani and I began our drive to the Minter City United Methodist Church. Just like two weeks ago, he would drop me off in front of the church, and I would ramble home.

Of course he asked the typical question so I am going to answer it here for the eightieth time. There are a whole bunch of reasons I do this type of thing. The simplest explanation I have is when I was in the first grade, my mom dropped me off after school at Rob White's house. She said, "I will be back to pick you up in an hour."

An hour!!! 

I had a whole hour!!! 

That feeling of joy and freedom, especially freedom, was overwhelming, and it is what I have been trying to recapture ever since. I get a taste of it now and then when I do really long stuff, when I don't have any pressing responsibilities, when no one is waiting on me. I get a taste of it when I do ten-mile swims. I get a taste of it when I do 100-mile bicycle rides. I get a taste of it when I do twenty-mile runs. I got a happy meal Friday when I went 23.82 miles in the bitter cold, the blowing wind, and under the cloudy skies.

Two weeks ago it was cold. Friday it was really cold, and as I shuffled off into my journey my mind pondered the paradox of me getting farther from and closer to home at the same time. The runs starts with a one mile jaunt north. That is so hard on my mind to know I am running away from home while trying to get there. At the same time, I am covering distance that will eventually get me back to the Hideout.

The road east

After my one-mile jaunt north, I turned east and crossed a bridge by an old gin and found the wind to be not as bad when it was coming in from my side. When I made it to Money Road, I had the wind to my back. Last time I did this, I began with a run two/walk one schedule. This time I started with run two and a half/walk nine tenths. I was worried about the nine tenths. As cold as it was, I feared I might not be able to walk that far without freezing out. But I could. I did, however, lengthen each run. I went from two and a half, to two point six, then two point nine and then over three miles at a time. I finished with 18.5 miles of running, over five miles of walking, and some really sore feet.

I didn't even stop at my office in
downtown Money.

Penny was home and somewhere along the way she texted my and asked if I was OK. "Do you want me to come get you?" Yes, it was a temptation. But I shuffled on and finished in six hours and something minutes. I have the time written down in my training diary. The diary sits on a shelf twelve feet away. Yes, I run for twenty miles, but I am too lazy to get up and retrieve my diary. Sue me.

Praise God for a good journey run. I enjoyed it. For a little while I felt free. Thank you, Jesus.