November 17, 2018
The 40-Year-Old Version
A love letter to runners
There is a path weaving through the seven lakes of Loveland that hugs the western edge of Boyd Lake, kisses the tips of Horseshoe, parts the lips of Westerdoll and Heinricy, and caresses the Upper and Lower Hoffmans. Trace the route on a map and the path resembles a heart or perhaps lungs. Run the 5 mile loop and you can't help but be seduced.
How do you explain the love of running? From the outside it is all pain and suffering. And it is that. But the thing that keeps us coming back, the reason we lace up our shoes day after day is ... what exactly?
Is it just beauty? To watch the land being painted by the seasons? Run a route long enough and you realize the land is alive, constantly changing beneath God's brush, recreated daily with infinite variation. As your thin line crosses this canvas how many versions of yourself will emerge?
Consider how the lakes breathe with the seasons. Engorged, they inhale in the spring as the mountains release their snowy reserves. Summer fills their lungs with life only to be exhaled with autumn, blowing the animals south for warmer weather. They remain breathless through winter, cracked and shallow while ice fishermen poke their frozen beds searching for life hibernating beneath the surface.
It's beautiful but not without cruelty. Is it that transformation that speaks to us? The miles abuse your body, crush your lungs, strain your heart, force you to wrestle with your limits. Unrelenting, an echo of the seaons, you have to keep running. Perhaps the unhealthy person who once inhabited your body will return. Perhaps you are racing a younger version of yourself, trying to say fast at forty. Perhaps today will mark the end of a season, will signal the point on the map where you turn around and start heading home.
Or perhaps there is something reassuring about the seasons, something about the cycle of death and renewal that inspires those of us committed to reinvention. Today's run will deplete your reserves, but in the morning your legs will once again be fresh, ready for the even harder miles ahead.
Thanks for reading. By coincidence, my fortieth birthday falls on Hug a Runner day, November 20. It was created by my friends at Run The Edge who are celebrating this year with a 5K for $5K Challenge. Proceeds go to "Shoes That Fit" to provide new athletic shoes for children in need. Consider supporting their mission. Stay creative.
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