Stream of Conciousness

I've been under the weather with some yucky stomach parasite since the second day of the New Year. Yesterday found me both (mostly) well and hungry. Not for a meal (although, Lord knows its nice to have eaten something solid), but for a run. I love running but for some reason hadn't had the deep yearning for the sensation of foot to pavement in quite some time. Not since, I dare say, my trip to Mexico at the end of March (where I contracted, I suspect, the aforementioned parasite).

I tried to hone my thoughts from the run into something readable when I got home. Here are the results:

Running for me is as sensual as a ripe peach, with the innate ability to transport and transfix. It brings me into a meditative state, one where I can practice single pointed focus, a task that is genuinely difficult for me to find otherwise. It's seems paradoxical to me that the ritual of physical activity combined with thought (a multitasking, no?) brings me the closest that I've known to a state of real meditation.

There is something special about running in the winter. The cold of a winter run touches deep in my lungs, with every breath bringing a little reminder that joy doesn't always come from that which is easy.

To practice yoga as I understand it, the dedication I bring to my is as important as the work I bring to my asana practice. I must work to towards bettering my sauca, or cleanliness. There are great advances to be made in the ways of personal development within each limb of yoga, but eventually I have to do what is hard, and that includes maintaining a tidy home. Ugh. I try very hard not to take the easiest path on the mat, and I shouldn't cheat myself put of an opportunity to further my personal practice off that mat, either. This means doing dishes and scrubbing the floors with as much vigor and respect as I bring to my mat-based work. This is the work of tapas, or austerity, yet another niyama. Ultimately, this will allow me to further my appreciation of tapas, or austerity.

This city is so beautiful. When my heart starts to swell near past it's seams in the glory of it's sheer capacity to awe, I find myself near tears. My eyes somehow informs my heart of just how blessed I am. And how lucky I am to have people with whom I can share all of this fucking beauty. Love, too, is a path of yoga.

Michael Corps Marathon: Gettin' Ready

I have a dirty confession (that you may have heard before). I slept through the Marine Corps Marathon last year.

Oh sure, if I were to catalogue things in my head neatly, I have unquestionably been more embarrassed than I was on race day morning, but I don't know that I've ever been more ashamed. I'd never been so, I don't know, disappointed in myself than I was in those frantic, awful hours. My parent's came up from the country to cheer me on, for crying out loud. I'd trained all those months! How would I face up to such a failure?!

I decided to take the unfortunate peck of lemons foisted on me by my own bollix and challenge myself: I was going to run a marathon that day!

And so I did.

Whenever a coworker or colleague that didn't know of my forty-winks foul up asked for my finish time, I gave them the time my GPS tracker gave me: 4:05. Not my best overall marathon time, not my worst. I didn't bother to correct them when they called it the Marine Corps Marathon.

Amongst friends, we called it the Michael Corps Marathon.

The best part? Those wonderful friends of mine rallied at the "finish line" (read: my fire escape) with boozy treats, streamers, and convivial hoops and hollars. I guess in some ways, it was a better success (to me) than a sub four hour time would have been.

After all, it was the first time I've ever come in first!

We're more than six weeks away from the second Michael Corps Marathon, and I'm up to nineteen mile long runs. Here was this week's.

Summer Ready: 9.7 Mile Run

To the Barac Company & Back:

Todays run combined neccesity (a trip to my property manager) and fun!

Summer Ready: 14.5 Mile Run

This is a great run: you get to spend extra time in a gorgeous section of Rock Creek Park, as well as get to appreciate the view of DC from Rosslyn. There is something special about running back on the 14th Street Bridge, a bridge so often seen from a cars vantage point.

Also, this route lets you run up on the Capitol and then play in the recently renovated easternmost side. Who doesn't love Union Station? Massachusetts is a nice slow incline, a final challenge on the last leg.

Summer Ready: 6.3 Mile Run

There are so many reasons this is my most regular (and favorite) run.

The inflorescence upon the slopes of rock creek park? Yes. The monuments? Clearly. 

This run gives a look at the Kennedy Center and the Watergate, and during Cherry Blossom season, there are few better ways to peep the pink.

And lest I forget, this run is an opportunity to visit my favorite river-- the Potomac. I grew up along this body of water, never in my whole adult life living  more than about 2 miles from her. It is truly the way home.