It’s your fault that I cry at every @storycorps, can’t sleep in if it’s sunny out and value my library card more than my credit card.
Thank you.
Happy 30th.
(Anniversary, that is. Though I might believe it if you said birthday.)
Turning Up the Awesome
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Category Archives: things i love
The Reaching of the Beach: Ultra Edition
Frequent readers of this blog (Hi Dad!) will know that I’m a bit of a Reach the Beach Relay enthusiast. It’s possible that a large percentage of my close friends are people I met during this 24+ hour event in which you drive 200+ miles in a van while taking turns getting out of the van to run alongside it. Possibly true.
Normally these overnight running relay teams have 12 people in 2 vans and you split up the 200 miles so each person runs 15 to 20 miles in segments and each van gets 5 to 6 hours off between rotations to sleep and eat and do other life sustaining activities. From time to time at the transition stations where you switch runners someone barrels through without stopping. Sometimes these people shout out, “ULTRA!” and that means that they are on a team with only 6 people, 1 van and no rest. Each person on these teams ends up running 30 to 35 miles. Basically five 10Ks in a day. The next logical question is, “Why would anyone do that?”
I wrote about 1000 more words to explain that, so keep reading if you want.
Take seat, make relax: ten days in Turkey
A few things I’ll remember about İstanbul, Selçuk, Pamukkale and Bodrum:
- Drinking Turkish coffee down to the grinds, and then trying to get one last drop
- The flag
- Hearing the ancient call to prayer in the middle of a modern city
- Getting caught up in the hustle of İstiklal Caddesi at 4am
- Diving into the most intense blue of the Aegean Sea
- Breakfast meze…. mmmm
- Dancing like crazy to the Grease medley in a club full of Istanbul hipsters, who seem to find this completely normal
- Waking up to find out that our bus was on a boat
- Sitting at a roof top bar overlooking the Bosphorus & talking to an intensely handsome Turkish man… via an iPad + Google translate (#ThankYouSteve)
- Standing on an ancient pillar on top of a hill and surveying the amazing countryside around Pamukkale
- Delicious warm menemen on an unseasonably cold morning in Selçuk
- Being hustled out of the Aya Sofya, and turning around to get one last look at the empty grandeur
Teşekkür ederim, Türkiye. I’ll be back.
True Life: I’m in Love with a Bridge
The Mass Ave. bridge is my happy place. Eight sunny September miles:
Case in point. From after class last week:
Other case in point: the identity for all of my social media things.
On being brave and loyal
I had the privilege of watching my brother graduate from college this afternoon. I started to type “my little brother” but that isn’t an accurate adjective anymore. We’re peers now, and watching him walk across the stage today I thought about the two things that make my brother so different from anyone else I have ever met. It comes down, I think, to being brave and loyal.
I have never once seen my brother hesitate because he is afraid. Not socially, not physically, not mentally. He is unwavering and whole-hearted in everything he does. The what-ifs that haunt me at unexpected moments seem to just run right off my brother’s shoulders. He forges ahead through every situation he encounters, staying fearless in the face of challenges and pressures that most of us are too terrified to even put in words.
And he does it with so much pride. My brother embraces affiliations and traditions with a ferocious loyalty that demands to be respected. His brand of yelling-at-the-top-of-your-lungs-I-don’t-give-a-damn-who-hears-me enthusiasm isn’t confined to sports teams (though he does love anything and everything Boston), nor is it confined to major events. Nope, my brother is vocally, passionately loyal across the board. Sometimes he’s chanting louder than anyone else in the ballpark, sometimes he’s driving six hours out of his way to pick up a friend and sometimes he’s just plain being a sap, but in any iteration there is never any question that my brother invests his whole being in everything he does.
Watching my brother grow up has been a learning experience. There are dozens of things I could say and anecdotes that could be shared, but as he heads out into the world it’s these things — his fearless bravery and his enthusiastic loyalty — that I think will carry him through. It’s not easy for anyone, but I’m not too worried. He’ll do just fine. Love you, kid.
Hills and Mountains
10k “Run for the Hills” trail run on Saturday to benefit one of my favorite groups, the Essex Country Greenbelt. Followed by a super speedy 20 mile hike up in NH on Sunday with some new trail running friends.
Big endorsement for the White Mountains Hostel – it was ideal. Also, there was a raspberry bush. Most excellant weekend.
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| Lincoln from Liberty |
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| K at the top of the Flume |
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| Dudes at the top of Lafayette or maybe Lincoln |
Gravity: 0 Trail Runners: 9
Today we learned that trail running is a battle against gravity. On the uphills it wants to keep you down, on the downhills it wants to break your ankles and shatter your face.
On this occasion, however, our band of merry runners emerged victorious. The gummy bears also helped. That there photo below is Alison at the very end, at a point when I probably should not have been attempting to take a picture.
So, yes. Trail racing. It’s fun. I’ll do it again.
How to See Boston on Foot in 3 Easy Steps
1. Run 20 to 30 miles every week for eight years, or until you’ve developed a serious endorphine addiction. Which ever comes first.
2. Go for what is supposed to be a quick jog on a beautiful night in June.
3. Get totally caught up how much you love this city and just…. keep… running.
Ephs are truly fortunate
“But actually what happens is that the best of this place gets absorbed into you. If you place this piece of time under your tongue – beneath all the words you speak from now on, at the root of all the choices you make and near the beginning of every relationship you form – if you place four years of your life in the innermost sanctuary of yourself, they will become part of your blood and breath, part of your heart and soul and mind and strength, part of the light by which you see.”
Rev. Rick Spalding
Williams College
May 18, 2011
