Who I Am

OK, I'm finally blogging again. Don't know why I haven't found the motivation to write for a while.

I've been stuck in a struggle to figure out whether I want to write more like Theodemos, and share my deep and genuine thoughts, or whether to take Mike's approach and keep it fun and personal.

One of the things I enjoy most in life is having long conversations about the Spiritual, Philosophical, and Scientific interpretations of the universe we live in. It stimulates my mind and is something I'm passionate about. Some of my favorite memories come from these moments of sharing ideas and ideals.

My dad and I would lay awake for hours in the woods, staring at the stars and discussing the vastness of the universe. We have different viewpoints about many things. We've never seen eye to eye on matters of politics, but in those chilly nights under a curtain of twinkling lights we both knew that agreeing who should be president didn't matter so much as the wonder we shared about who we are and why we're here. In those moments I found the joy of open dialogue rather than passionate debate. I also grew to own my faith and learned to share it openly with others who did not share it.

My mom and I would talk about God until the late hours of the night, and sometimes even the early hours of the morning. I wanted to hear all about my maker and savior, and even at a young age would discuss the meaning of various scriptures. I see now that those engaging dialogues were teaching moments the Lord was using to mold my mind and heart. He was working through them and helping my mom to raise me in "the nurture and admonition of the Lord."

I'm not just a serious guy though. I'm downright silly if you catch me at the right moment. I usually let my shyness hide that, but ask my wife what home is like and more likely than not, she'll mention we share a lot of laughter.

I'm still the little boy enjoying my adventures in the woods with my buddies. I love thinking back to all the hikes, campouts, mountain climbs, snowshoeing, rock hopping, river swimming, running, golfing, and snow caving we've shared together.

It's also true that sharing our experiences is what makes them so much more wonderful. I get a kick out of reading Mike's, and Jim's daily thoughts and what they've been up to. In fact, I'm sure Oswald Chambers would likely say it's in the sharing of the mundane and ordinary events that you find your real friends.

Anyone can enjoy the mountaintop, but I know Trent is important to me when I think it's cute that Carson has fuzz growing on his head. I know Mike is a great friend and brother when I laugh at his story about how he's "daddy" when Becky talks for Lily and "papa" when Becky talks to Lily. I see how grateful I am to have added Jim to my "inner circle" when I enjoy his memories of childhood in Maine and how everything seems so different now that he's gone back as an adult.

I guess I'm the serious and the silly guy, and will have to give myself freedom to write about both. Today I will think about whether the mainstream media in our nation is biased to the left or whether I am biased to the right (is it both?) and I will enjoy a homemade cinnamon role. I will try to keep my commitment to spend time in God's word and in prayer and I will see an old friend who is in town. I will be upset that our world is so materialistic we seem to have forgotten what Christmas means and I will play a computer game.

I am serious and silly, and I love both worlds.

25 reasons to love life!

I love the Christmas season. I just read an interesting (pretty tough) article on gift giving, but that got me thinking about the joys of the season...

In no particular order (25 for the 25 days of December leading to Christmas)...
1.) Fireside cuddling, (especially while watching...)
2.) Christmas movies!
-White Christmas
-The Grinch (both Jim Carrey, and the old cartoon version)
-Muppet Christmas Carol
-A Christmas story ('you'll shoot you're eye out!')
-Family Man (with Nicholas Cage)
-While You Were Sleeping ("Ceasar Romero was tall")
3.) "Hot Drink" (Chai, Hot Chocolate, Apple Cider)
4.) Tree decorating at mom's
5.) Tree decorating at our house
6.) Cutting down the tree with family
7.) German Christmas treats (lebkuchen)
8.) Picture of our dog in reindeer antlers (with bells on)
9.) Decorating the house
10.) Yummy candles
11.) Waking my wife up before she wants to get up on Christmas morning!
12.) Christmas breakfast (mmm, French toast and hot chocolate)
13.) Christmas dinner (mmm, Smoked turkey and mashed potatos)
14.) Exchanging ornaments with my wife
15.) Christmas music!
16.) Advent calendars with chocolate in them
17.) Christmas breakfast for our beagle
18.) My mom and my wife's mom stuffing a stocking for our beagle =)
19.) Somber candle services
20.) Joyous church celebrations!
21.) Christmas carols
22.) Snow
23.) Giving gifts
24.) Christmas eve evenings (time with family, early gifts, late movies and talking)!
25.) Jesus, our savior was born!!

What do I know? I'm just a guy!!

Sarah and I had a good laugh last night. It was one of those times when two people are both in a giggly mood and everything becomes funny. So when I shared a silly story about something I had done earlier in the day we were both laughing to the point of tears.

What is it about us guys that makes us so inable to communicate emotions anyway?

Context first. You see, I'm about to run in my first 50 mile race. This in itself is a bit silly, since I've never run a race longer than 10 miles (that's another story, and don't worry...I've done training runs much longer than 10 miles).

I'm actually pretty nervous about this race, since it will be new territory and I don't know whether my body will hold up long enough to let me finish or what pain I might experience along the way. Since I'm a little nervous I am excited to have any friends and family come to help support and cheer me on.

It was in that context that I found out my sister-in-law had asked to remove herself from a commitment she had so she could come and cheer for me. You know the thing about how "actions speak", so when she did this it made me feel really good. Well that's nice, but then comes me being a dopey guy.

I wanted to let her know how much it meant to me (and also to let her know I'd be running for most of the day and that she shouldn't stand in the cold for the whole thing). My plan was something like this...

Give her a big hug and tell her what a 'warm fuzzy' it gave me that she wanted to come support me, and tell her she's a great person.. What really happened...I pinched her on the elbow and said something like "Hey stinker, I heard you're coming to the race".

Doh! Seriously, I'm pretty sure the next generation of "Everybody Loves Raymond" will be loosely focused on my inability to tell people how I feel about them. It'll be something like "He said / He said".

Example: When he said "hey stinker", he meant, "you're so special to me" and when he said "I heard you're coming" he meant "wow, I'm so blessed that you care!" It'll be a witty, lighthearted, feel-good view of the male mind, and the women who are forced to translate what comes out of that mind.

On the flip side, after I shared this story with Sarah and we laughed about it, I realized how thankful I am that I can share things so easily with her. Now if she can help me get better at sharing with everyone else!

Things that make you go "hmmmm"

I like being reminded what I should be focused on...

Today it is on the purpose and function of the church and on where my energy should be. Thanks to a good friend I have some things to think about today. Here's hoping I can keep some perspective and not let work stress me out and distract me too much today!

Soccer anyone?

Been having hard time coming up with blog material since I've been really busy at work lately.

Last weekend was pretty fun. Jim, Mike and I hung out at Jim's house for "stupid guy movie night". We laughed a lot and played goofy games like who can stand on their head the longest. I lost with about 3 seconds. Never have been able to do a handstand/headstand.

Trent came by with Carson, and we were like something out of a movie. 4 20-somethings and a little baby. He is the cutest little guy, and every time I see him I start daydreaming about the little boy who will be part of our family next February (he's kicking like a champ these days too!)

Jim, Mike, and I took turns dancing Carson around the room to keep him quiet, while Trent enjoyed a root beer and watching Carson hang out on guys night with his "uncles". I can't wait until we get to take him on more guy adventures (camping, hiking, more dumb movies, etc...)

After Trent left, Mike decided we were going to go play soccer in the dark and the rain. We had a pretty good time, but of course that leads me to the fact that it wasn't the best idea for me to be out late, running around, the night before a race. The next morning I got to my race 10 minutes before it started because I had misunderstood the start time. I raced horribly, but it was a good mental exercise in toughness and persistence.

This weekend we'll hang out with friends/family again for the 7th annual Thompson Harvest Party. It would be fun someday to own a little barn and make a big deal out of it. Dancing, bobbing for apples, hay rides, yadayada. It's the simple things in life that are so fun!

Western Chicken Burger....Western Chicken Burger...

I went for a great run on Saturday. I've been reading a lot about other people's experiences with "ultra" running and the emotional and physical roller-coaster experiences they've gone through. What has appealed to me is the idea that running really far seems to have the effect of stripping away people's protective layers, and showing them who they really are.

That and it's just really cool to be in the woods and get a lot of views in one day.

I went to Bull of the Woods Wilderness and started my run on the south end (about a 45 minute drive from Salem, OR). It's a nice area, with old-growth Fir and several creeks just made for boulder hopping, and swimming in the summer.

It was a little chilly, and the first 8 miles were a steady uphill (not steep...about 2500 ft over 10 miles). Something about continuously climbing for that distance, the rocky footing, and my being slightly chilled started to get to me. When I got to a saddle (by Battle Ax peak and Beachie Saddle), I took a quick break to check the map and put on my jacket.

It was so strange, but that little break, putting on my jacket, and a Tiger's Milk bar completely changed things for me. It helped that I was now running downhill too (though the trail was still really rocky).

Soon I got to Elk Lake, and some flat ground! I didn't care much that I was on a gravel road, and was happy to be nearing my half-way mark (later I would realize this was not halfway, but rather something like mile 13 of 33). In my relief that I was not lost (I had a few question marks in my head on that), and was on flat ground I accidentally missed the next trailhead.

A little less than 2 miles down the road I started really wondering what was up, so I stopped to pull out the map. I had to do this many times during the day, since the trails were not well marked and were often pretty overgrown. Taking the pack off was a bit of a chore since it involved an intricate dance with my headphones, and 50% of the time they seemed to get tangled with my arm and pack. I was pretty bummed to realize I had strayed and added about 3.5 miles to my day.

When I did find the trailhead I found that I was (for the first time in about 16-ish miles) finally on nice pine-needle carpeted trail in thick woods.

Eventually I stopped at a creek to get some more water, munch on my second energy bar and stretch. I started up again and ended up on more rocky trail pretty quickly, but had some great views as I headed down toward the north side of the wilderness and came close to a place I'd camped before by Welcome Lakes.

I started up trail "573" - none of the trails have names. They're all just numbered, and they each have one small sign. Very easy to miss, so I had many earphone dance removals of my pack to access my map throughout the day.

Trail 573 should really be called "Steep Rocky Rhododendron Branch Game Trail". See, this name would tell people like me what to expect. That is people who just up and say, "I think I can run 30+ miles in the wilderness". Then we might shorten our plans by a few miles, or bring more food for the journey. It was on trail 573 where I started realizing my day was going to take a lot longer than I expected, that I didn't have enough food or drink with me, and that I needed to start walking more. The walking part came naturally since the trail was so steep.

It was also on trail 573 that I started intermittently clapping and making noises with my voice. This was because I realized I was on a trail that nobody uses and there are mountain lions around the area. I figured I didn't want to surprise them, or a bull elk. I'm sure I looked a little silly, and if you'd seen me I suppose you'd think I was getting my groove on to my mp3 player. Then again, the weary look of my face might have just made you think I was a loony tune to avoid.

Either way, I made it up to Twin Lakes, where I should have filled my water bottle, but didn't. After Twin Lakes I climbed up to Silver King mtn, and then Whetstone mtn. I followed a nice ridgeline for a while and seemed to be getting my momentum back, but the trail was still rocky, and I was getting tired.

By Whetstone mtn, I was getting really down. I was hungry to the point of being lightheaded and my arms and hands were tingling. My legs were tired and I could only run for about 5 minutes at a time. I had taken about 1.5 hrs longer than expected and still had a ways to go. I pulled out the map one more time (and grumbled at my headphones).

As I went to put on my pack again, I bent down and felt sore and tired. I think I said something like "ooey wooey" and let out a sigh. Now I hadn't seen a single person all day...about 30 miles at this point. As I put on my pack, I turned to see a young couple approaching from another trail I had just passed. I was too tired to be very embarrassed, and exchanged a polite hello before moving on. A while later I realized I should have asked for some food from them, but then I don't know if I would have done that had I thought of it.

It was at this point when I started walking even the downhills. I tried to run, because I knew Sarah would be nervous by now, having not heard from me. I was just so tired, lightheaded and hungry. The trip down from Whetstone mtn took much longer than I expected and I was feeling really low. I suddenly got this image of the Carl's Junior western chicken sandwich and it's all I could think of. Having sweated out electrolytes all day I could just taste the salty burger...mmm. I just kept seeing the sandwich and wishing so desperately to be done. I was pretty sure I didn't want to run for a long time after this.

It started raining lightly when I finally made it back to the road and knew that I only had a quarter mile to go. I got to the car and put on clean, dry cotton clothes. There's nothing so nice as clean, dry cotton after a long backpacking trip or a hard run. It's honestly part of what kept me going, knowing I had my cotton friends (undies, socks, shirt, pants) waiting for me at the car. I swilled down a carbonated juice drink, started munching on pretzels, and felt a wonderful sense of satisfaction.

Then I started wondering where my next long run would be...

Oh, and I did go get that Carl's Jr burger. Forgot my credit card and had to go back to get it too.

White fur wishes and long mile dreams

I can't think of much to write, yet I feel the need to blog since my friends will probably quit checking in if there's no new content.

So...I'm wearing a dark blue fleece today which is a bit of a faux-pas in my house. This is because we have a tri-colored beagle. Translation: White dog hair and dark fleece do not mix.

Well actually, they mix rather well, and that is the point. People at work today must think my body is somehow shedding little fuzzy white hairs. That or PETA is going to be all over me for wearing a Beagle-fur jacket. If you see a sad man walking home with red paint thrown on his blue fleece with a few white hairs on it, you know it's one of two things....Me after being assaulted by PETA, or a really misguided, patriotic soul (get it, red, white, and blue. You see what I did there was....)

Decided today I'm going to run a 50 mile race on November 6th. I probably actually decided this a long time ago, but finally had the guts to admit it to myself today. If I can run it in under 9 hrs I can qualify for the Western States 100. My mom thinks I'm nuts and may die...I assured her I won't die and that I've been researching how to train for this stuff. I can't convince her I'm not nuts though.

In the meantime I can't decide if I'm more excited for the race itself or for what fun it will be to have my family and friends there to support me and try to share their energy with me to help me finish.

More to come!

My Best Friend

What is your idea of a good friend?

Would it be someone who would give up a Saturday to support you in your need? Would they stand in the rain on your account and never complain? Maybe they would be the one who made sure you had a warm cup of soup waiting for you when you came out of the cold. They might sit in a car for a couple hours so you'd have a dry set of clothes waiting for you.

Now how about if your "need" was really just a whim? If you just felt like going for a 23-ish mile jaunt down the coast, would your friend sacrifice their Saturday to help you do it? If so you're lucky, and like me, you might want to marry that special friend.

Saturday I got to enjoy one of my favorite activities; running in the rain through dense forests and on cliffs overlooking the Pacific. It was outstanding, and I ran farther than I have before. In the meantime my wife, and my buddies' wives - my friends Mike and Jim ran too - were keeping each other company in the rain while they waited for us and served as our "aid stations". We had extra drinks and snacks for the trip, as well as dry shirts and jackets.

Lots of fun, very beautiful, and the scenery was nice too ;-)
Thanks Sarah!!

My Buddy

Well, I got blog-scooped (blooped?) by Jim, but as can be seen on his site, Sarah and I are having a boy!

I really was excited about having a boy or a girl, and had been dreaming about the joys either would bring (our beatiful girl who would make my heart hurt from loving her so much, or our funny boy who would make me laugh). As soon as the ultrasound technician pointed "it" out to us I started beaming! Instantly I pictured my little buddy.

Right away, the thoughts poured in...I'm going to show him how to skip rocks, and why it's fun to be in the woods. I'll wipe up his scrapes, and tell him to stop bringing frogs in the house. I pictured my little man learning how to honor his mother and how to treat girls. His first kiss, the time he blew milk out his nose from laughing so hard. Oh, and who will ever forget the time when he was 3 that he went poo in front of everyone at a wedding reception...Just dropped his drawers 'cause he had to go (ok that was me...you can ask my mom, it's one of her favorite stories)

We don't have the name anywhere near figured out, so we have to keep thinking on that one, but I can see him already when I close my eyes. He's got his mom's deep, beautiful, brown eyes, my cowlicky hair, her cute feet, and my fingers.

I won't see him for 20 more weeks and already I'm sappy beyond belief...

Can't wait to see you baby!

Two nights ago I was doing my stretches and then icing my legs to make sure I can keep running. While I sat on the floor with frozen veggies icing my hips and "buns" (by the way...if you're going to ice as much as me, probably a good idea to buy ice packs rather than have to throw away veggies...seriously would you want to eat veggies after you'd iced your legs with them dozens of times?)

So as I sat defiling two bags of veggies, Sarah said...come put your hand on my tummy. I leaned over and put my palm on her stomach when- boop! - I felt a little poke like her stomach bubbled under my hand.

I was so shocked I didn't know what to say. For the first time I'd felt the little life Sarah and I are bringing to the world. Two days later and here I am thinking about it every 5 minutes. I touched my baby (sort of) for the first time!

Now today Jen will likely bring her baby to the world. Yay for baby T #1, and now I can't wait for baby T #2!!

Doh!

I can't believe I've never run on the Wildwood trail before. I've often lamented the fact there are so few trails to run where we live, and that I'm forced to run on the roads.

I got up early this morning and drove through the fog to find the trailhead of the Wildwood trail on Newberry road. I actually managed to run 18 miles without hip pain, and felt really strong. I was feeling so graceful at about mile 17.5, thinking something like "this has been great, and now, thanks to God helping me heal, I've had a great run". At that moment, as I took a drink from my water bottle I lurched forward, throwing my water bottle down the trail and planted my whole self directly on the trail with a thud.

I had been distracted and made the classic mistake of not paying attention to my footing on the trail, when a root I hadn't seen seized its opportunity and took me down. I muttered "crud" a couple times and started spitting the dirt out of my mouth. I tried wiping the trail off my face, but it was sticking to the sweat on my arms and I quickly ran out of clean arm real estate with which to clean my face. Of course shortly after this I happened on a family with young kids. The dad gave me a strange look, no doubt wondering just how I had gotten so much dirt on my face.

Anyway, I liked the trail quite a bit, and I look forward to many more weekend runs on it. The mist weaved in and out of the trees all day, and I ran in a canopy of fir and oak with lush greenery all around. It was great!

Gear!

Mike and Jim made me get up at 5:30 on a Saturday. This after Mike got me to get up at 5:50 on Friday for a fruitless effort to ride bikes together to work. Today it was for REI's gear "garage" sale. It always makes for an experience of the best and worst in people.

Best...I stood in line from a little after 6AM to 9AM while Mike and Jim made me laugh over and over. We even discussed utilitarianism, and tried to determine just how many utils we each were worth. (Note: Mike has 3 utils, but that's another story)

Worst...People shoving me out of the way, grabbing 6 backpacks and 5 sleeping bags to ensure they got the best deal. These people apparently are willing to ignore the value of their fellow-man in order to score some used gear. We took the approach that "they can have the gear, it's not worth it". Jim went so far as to walk out with nothing but an 83 cent water bottle, ethics intact! Mike got a nice roof cargo box for a good deal.

I'm sure our wives love that we keep spending money on gear. Spending time with the guys this morning though, I was realizing we're buying the gear to use it to create more memories of hikes, camping in the rain, peaking mountains, etc... (that's how we'll justify it anyway, and hope our wives believe it!)

In the meantime I have to figure out when I'll start using the little pack I bought for running, so I can convince Sarah it was a "steal"!

Shhhhhh

A strange thing happened to me the other day...I logged into my blog and noticed I had a comment from a person with the user name "Shhhhhh".

It was such an odd and exhilerating feeling to know that some stranger out in the world had viewed my blog. (here is theirs... http://pagesfromtheuk.blogspot.com/)

I’m guessing from the reference Shhhhhh is from somewhere in England. Of course I bragged to Mike, saying a stranger had viewed and commented on my blog. I returned the favor and commented on Shhhhhh’s blog.

There’s something about the idea that any random person in the world might get some insight into who I am that is kind of exciting. I suppose that's just the human innate desire to be known and to know. It's probably also why I keep writing as though I were addressing a mass audience even though pretty much just my wife, my brother-in-law/friend, my mom and my other friend might read this. I figure at any moment several hundred people might discover this and think my writing is so fascinating that they must log in day after day to see what's happened to Eric today.

To blogging, and to the chance to cross paths with interesting strangers!

-ET

Why I changed the title of my blog

So I realize this posting will seem windy, but I wanted to explain why I changed the name of my blog and the significance of the new name.

The other day I was running through my favorite trails in the Corvallis, Oregon area when a thought hit me so clearly and I think it will end up being one of those key moments in life that I'll look back on and see how it set me on the path I ended up on. I love those moments of epiphany running seems to bring to me.

First some context: Recently I found my passion for running after having taken several years away from it. In fact it's really been 6 years since I've had this kind love for running. (How I found it again is another story. Maybe I'll post it sometime.)

I got back into running a little too exuberantly. After taking those years off, it was only a few weeks of training before I ran 40 miles in three days and played 36 holes of golf. While doing some speed training on the third day of that stretch I “tweaked” my hamstring and started feeling pain in my hip as well. I didn’t do a good job of resting to let the injury heal after that and for the next 7 weeks + I struggled to reconcile my reclaimed passion with my body’s need for healing rest.

I prayed with fervor, continually asking God to heal me and allow me to follow this “bliss”. For me running is a spiritual experience. When I’m on my own in the woods, early in the morning, slightly chilled in the mist that shrouds the top of the evergreens on the hills, I feel so blessed. My heart responds in worship and gratitude to my creator and savior, and I have a sense of simple communion with the God who loves me.

I found it difficult to understand why God would gift me with the talent to run, fill me with a burning to run, bless me with His presence when I run, and then not allow me to run. Of course, God is not a vindictive sadist, and I realize I brought this injury on with my own lack of judgment. Nonetheless, I argued to God that it only made sense to heal me and allow me to spend those times worshipping Him.

As time continued I began to get paranoid. Maybe God, in His omniscience, knew that running would bring me down a wrong path and had allowed my hip injury in order to spare me from something. Of course, this thought scared me and seemed so tragic. “Whatever lesson you want me to learn, Lord, please teach it to me without taking running away from me”, I kept praying.

I started stretching, icing, resting, taking anti-inflammatories, going to the chiropractor, got a sports massage, and wasn’t seeing much progress. So I tried something different. I found a book detailing an approach to running based on engaging your core muscles, rather than using your leg muscles. Many of the ideas of the author were gleaned from martial arts. The premise is something close to the idea of leverage. That is, utilizing your core abdominal muscles, the rotation of your spine, and the reaction of your leg tendons you can run the same mileage- or even more –with much less wear and tear on your body.

One of the key principles is to adjust your posture. Incorrect posture causes undue stress on nearly every area of your body. The principle of engaging my core muscles, and utilizing the leverage of my spine seemed intuitive to me. The principle of adjusting my posture in general, and while running seemed like a no-brainer, but something I had sorely neglected.

As I worked on my posture, continued icing and taking anti-inflammatories, and worked on my flexibility I hoped for positive results. More importantly I had come to a place of surrender to the Lord. I had decided in my heart regardless of whether I got my way, I would praise His name and surrender myself in obedience to the will of Christ. Of course, I was still honest with God that I would be sorely disappointed if I couldn’t run. The important thing to me was that I would say “blessed be your name” (great song) regardless of my circumstances. I trusted that if I was not able to run it would be for my best whether I could see that or not. In the meantime I would try my best to run again and ask for God’s blessing in my efforts.

I did begin to see results, and now I’m cautiously optimistic. I’ve run twice in a row without pain. It had been something like 8 weeks since I had run without pain, so those two runs have me very hopeful (one of those was today…see the posting just before this).

The real story behind all this is what I realized about both my running and life. As stated earlier, the idea behind the book I’ve been reading is if your body isn’t properly aligned you will pay the price. If your posture is incorrect you will be on a path to pain. You may not experience it right away, but over the years you will put undue stress on your joints and muscles eventually wearing them down. You can keep it up for so long, but at an unexpected time you will break down. Additionally, if you use your muscles in a less than optimal way they will wear down. You can do weight training to delay this “meltdown”, but it will still come.

The only real solution is to correct your posture and run from your core. If you drive your movements from your core you will not only run farther without breaking down, you will also recover faster from your runs.

Back to the moment of epiphany on the Corvallis trail…I was focusing on my posture and on using my core to drive my movements, when I suddenly realized, this is the same problem I have had in my life. It doesn’t just apply to my running. Suddenly it was so clear to me.

In life, just as in running, if you are “running” with poor posture or by using your “leg muscles” instead of your core you are going to be causing stress points which, if not addressed, will cause you to break down. So simple, and yet we fail to notice this so often!
Think about it for a moment, and let me paint the picture a bit more. If we are leading ourselves in our careers, relationships, and life decisions, we are using our “leg muscles”. What’s more, if we’re not spending time reading God’s word and meditating in prayer, our core is so weak our life’s “posture” will surely be twisted and tilted in unhealthy ways.

No wonder so many are tired, stressed, weak, and wondering why things are not going their way. Just as I wasn’t running from my core, so many of us aren’t living from the core. And what is our core to be if not Christ Himself? I realized, without spending time in communion with Christ, allowing him to correct my spiritual posture, I am creating unnecessary stress points in my life. I’m sure there are many I don’t even know about. They’re festering, gaining intensity, and eventually will strike and leave me wondering what happened.

This is no new concept and I don’t intend to claim it as mine. Christ modeled this “postural” approach by spending countless hours in communion with the Father. He was aligning Himself to ensure His core was filled with the will of God and He would be moving with the leverage God gave him, rather than of His own will.

While it’s not a new concept, it is a new mental image for me, and something I want to spend time thinking about. I may develop the concept for myself as I think about it more, and while it’s pretty raw right now, I hope this has spurred you to think about your spiritual posture and core. Is your spiritual spine twisted? Are you getting a hunched back? Is your core strong? Do you have a spiritual “six-pack” or a “spare tire”?

So let’s focus on meditating on God’s word, spending time in communion with Him, and allow him to adjust our posture, and build up the strength of our core so we can “run the race and fight the good fight”!!

Went for a great run this morning, well great for the most part. There's a park system here in Toronto connecting several really large parks with creeks, woods, trails, gardens... It was nice running, and I was especially thankful to the Lord for helping my hip to keep healing (no pain today).

One problem though...I figured I'd run an out-and-back course, since I know nothing of Toronto and didn't want to get lost. Unfortunately on the way back I took a little section of trail I hadn't taken on the way out. I was starting to get concerned, but then met up with the creek I'd been following for a while, and figured "just follow this back to where you started".



Good idea, but next time it would be good for me to take an inventory of how many creeks there are before assuming every creek I see is the one that will lead me back. By the time I realized I was well off course I was trapped in a maze of overgrown trails (using the term trails loosely here...more like raccoon paths among the dead tree branches and overgrown plants trying to trip me up.) I was also absolutely drenched in sweat head to toe (normal for me, though this was beyond even my standards...more humid here than home I think). So on this oh-so-hot day, running under the noon sun, in a city I am unfamiliar with I started thinking..."hmm which way should I go, and just how long is this run going to be?" Not a fun feeling when you're already "bonking" from not eating before the run or during.

I had started with what I thought was plenty of water in a bottle I carried, but I was quickly fading now that I had already run longer than planned and still didn't know my way back to the car nor how long it would take. By the way, fun experiment...see if you can get lost in the woods in a city of over 3 million people. I was successful. I've found a good strategy is to cross various creeks whenever you get the chance, run up ridiculously steep ridges, get stuck in too much plant life, turn around, take the next creek crossing available and repeat.

I'm probably exagerating this all a bit, since it turned out I ended up running something like 12 miles, which I have done on many occasions. For some reason though, the combination of being lost, hungry, thirsty, and more tired than normal just made the run keep stretching out.

Still a great run though...very peaceful and rewarding.

-ET

Toronto

I am an excellent planner. I forecast future events and wisely make decisions based on what will happen. Such as..."I'm going to get up at 4:30 AM to go on a business trip, so why not have the guys over the night before?"

OK, maybe I'm not so smart...*note to self: go to bed earlier than midnight if you're getting up at 4:30. This is not to say I didn't have a great time. Got a good bunch of guys I hang around with and there are usually a good amount of laughs when we get together.

Anyway, now I've travelled from Portland to Cincinnati and from Cincy to Toronto. Another interesting twist along the way on this one...I rented a car and got directions which were completely wrong. Yahoo!'s website had me take the wrong exit and then I was looking for a street which was nowhere to be found. Cost me an extra half hour by the end. Doh!

So I'm groggy and hungry now, but at a very nice hotel. Off to get some food!

Coaches (and my introduction)

First a quick intro on who I am:

My name is Eric. I'm in my late 20's. Married, have a dog, baby on the way, grew up in Oregon, currently live in Beaverton. Was a decent runner (competed at the small college level, nothing too noteworthy). Will post pictures soon.

Likes: Backpacking, Running, Golf, Reading while drinking Chai tea, my wife making me laugh
Dislikes: Self-centeredness, personal attacks, hip pain, tomato juice

While on my run yesterday I bumped into my college coach. I hadn't seen him in a while and it brought back a few memories. I owe so much of who I am to the many teachers and coaches I've had through the years.

My college coach (Wes) taught me to focus on my effort and not on the result. I still hear him in my head saying "give your best, leave God the rest". Such a valuable physical and spiritual lesson. I still apply it to my work life and to my training.

I look back with particular fondness on memories of my high-school cross-country/track coach (Paul Mariman). He passed away a few years back, but many of his lessons are still forefront in my mind. He was always so positive and taught me to dream. He showed me how to visualize myself accomplishing things I thought were amazing, then he'd tell me I could do them until I believed him. I don't think he ever uttered an unkind word to anyone, and today I can thank him for teaching me to challenge myself and to remove self-imposed limitations.

More to come...