Chronic Runner - Blog

That's a Question, Not a Statement of Intent. "We must walk consciously only part way toward our goal and then leap in the dark to our success. " ~ Henry David Thoreau On Friday afternoon, May 11th, I flew from Denver to Sioux...

“I know, up on top you are seeing great sights, but down here at the bottom we, too, should have rights.” ~ Dr, Seuss, Yertle the Turtle Yesterday morning while running through a quiet neighborhood along a narrow, twisty road with...

Catch up on the last two episodes here: Boston Marathon 2012: The Vision, The Reality Episode Two: Race Day Begins ...Time to cut to the chase! "If we will be quiet and ready enough, we shall find compensation in every disappointment...

Catch up on the Boston Marathon: The Vision, The Reality Episode 1 here Let's Get This Show On The Road... After months of training, through the dark and cold and windy winter, some of it tedious, some of it while injured, some of it while...

Episode One: The Prelude Here is the vision I held in my mind's eye, six months ago or 2 weeks ago, when I thought of my upcoming adventure/family vacation in Boston: My husband, daughter and I will fly to Boston, find our reasonably priced, quiet...

"Providence has nothing good or high in store for one who does not resolutely aim at something high or good. A purpose is the eternal condition of success" - Thornton Wilder Runners can sometimes get caught up in the numbers of...

In his book, Run!, Dean Karnazes tells a story of stumbling upon a liquor store out in the middle of nowhere, on the edge of even more nowhere, and about a curious, hard to read liquor store clerk. In search of running fuel, not booze, Karnazes manages...

On April 16th, 2012, the women who ran the Boston Marathon in 1972, the first year women were granted official entry into the race, will be firing the starter's gun in Hopkinton. These women - courageous trailblazers for all women runners and athletes...

I have come to greatly dislike the way Americans celebrate Lá Fhéile Pádraig (The Festival of Patrick). Like most holidays celebrated in the US, this day has become an excuse to get stinking piss-faced on bad beer with pseudo-Irish...

"What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals. " - Henry David Thoreau "Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does. " - William James Last month I lost...

"A question that sometimes drives me hazy: am I or are the others crazy? " Albert Einstein "What sane person could live in this world and not be crazy? " Ursula K. Le Guin One of my all time favourite movies, for so...

"If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them." ~ Henry David Thoreau "Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought...

"Some things in life are bad They can really make you mad Other things just make you swear and curse. When you're chewing on life's gristle Don't grumble, give a whistle And this'll help things turn out for the best... And...always...

"Every mile is two in winter." - George Herbert "Surely as cometh the Winter, I know There are Spring violets under the snow." - R. H. Newell Yesterday a good friend, who's also a (newish) runner (been...

“There is no tool for development more effective than the education of girls.”– Kofi Annan I teach college ethics, and my education and training focused primarily on the study of ethics. Today, my concerns continue to return...

When Is It Rational To Run Injured? Does It Matter If It's Irrational? "Prudence is the virtue by which we discern what is proper to do under various circumstances in time and place." - John Milton I am eleven weeks out from...

“Who are we, who is each one of us, if not a combinatoria of experiences, information, books we have read, things imagined?” - Italo Calvino In the depth of winter I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer. - Albert Camus...

How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. - Annie Dillard Events in our lives happen in a sequence in time, but in their significance to ourselves they find their own order the continuous thread of revelation. - Eudora Welty ...

"Be not the slave of your own past. Plunge into the sublime seas, dive deep and swim far, so you shall come back with self-respect, with new power, with an advanced experience that shall explain and overlook the old." - Ralph Waldo Emerson ...

26 December, in Ireland, is the day of the Feast of St. Stephen, and is also called Wren's Day. Celtic myth had it that the robin, that was suppose to represent the New Year, killed the wren, which represented the Old Year, during this time. Wren...

I've been around the block a few times...And 2012 marks 40 years of running - 40 years of identifying myself as a runner. Over the years I've gone through many phases and stages with running. But it was not until I had been road racing for several...

Shallow men believe in luck. Strong men believe in cause and effect. - Ralph Waldo Emerson Man is condemned to be free; because once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does. - Jean-Paul Sartre There is a part...

The subject of this post is not about bonking, puking, injuring yourself , or worse - It's about race organisation and the duty organisers have to those running. I would like to suggest that race organisers have both a moral and legal duty to deliver...

You're running the last miles of your 10k, marathon, half marathon, etc. and suddenly you run into (literally, sometimes) a gridlock as you merge with other runners running another race. This has happened to me several times this past year and...

Sidewalks are disappearing in urban areas, where they're most necessary. Perhaps this is happening because people have stopped using them or perhaps people have stopped using them because they're disappearing. For years I have returned to my childhood...