We're Off

Here we go - off to Ohio for the Mohican 100 Mile Endurance Run. This is round two in the quest for 100. No promises and no predictions. I'm just going to run, do my best and have fun - and hope that's enough to cover the miles. I have other 100s in my sights so this one isn't the make or break deal. It's just a race - and that's enough to get me out there and give it my best shot. I'll try and update when I can. Thanks for reading!

Peace,
Eric

Where I Am

Zen meditation, A Course In Miracles, and running seem to occupy a large portion of my interest and reading these days. I'm looking for a new approach to seeing the world and racing with a re commitment to the means that have been my salvation before. Through drinking, job loss, death of a loved one and divorce - I have turned to the above to help turn within for peace, comfort and aid. Along with writing it's what I do - I forgive, I run, I meditate and I write - imperfectly as it seems yet I simply do my best. And it's funny how the effort alone delivers comfort. It's the action of taking action that brings results. As the Course states "Infinite patience produces immediate results" and this makes more sense to me now then 20 years ago when I first read it. Yet the mystery - and the practice still unfolds. I think it always will.

Peace,
Eric

Zen Running With Toltec Seers

The goal for Mohican 100 Mile Endurance Run is a Zen run - to run not detached but un-attached to outcome and situations. My aim is to approach the race as art in the same manner as the Toltec Seers of Mexico approached life. The Toltec Seers where sorcerers - meaning they recognized their connection to the source of all things. They were awakened in the same manner of a Zen Master. Toltec Seers were very much artist of life - reading their life events as whispers from the source and acting accordingly. All of this may seem far fetched - I am neither a Zen Master or Toltec Seer Yet I do posses everything they do. I have the ability to see the world much the same. I'll try on Saturday. I have a 100 miles to get it right.

Peace,
Eric

Up Coming Mohican 100

At the end of this week I attempt another 100 miles - no pressure this time. I'm just out for a day (and night) of running and will let the miles fall where they may. It's not that I don't want 100 miles  - I do and I trained like crazy for the C&O 100 but it just wasn't meant to be on that day. I haven't trained like crazy for this one - I'm relying on the traiing for the C&O and last weeks 50k to see me through whatever distance I make. Next year I will pin point my training towards another 100 (Pine Creek?) and that will be my target race. This is my fun run - and I'm OK with that.

Peace,
Eric

Ultrarunning As Art

While talking with a friend we stumbled over the concept of the ultrarunner as an artist - using our innate creativity to not only allow the race to unfold in its own unique way (using the runner as its medium) but at the same time creating the inner experience that belongs totally to the runner and his/her own perspective. We become co-creators with the not just the race experience but the course itself and create a dialogue with the landscape that guides us through the creative process. The race becomes our own personal artscape with a blend of our interior world and the natural beauty that is so often allowed to pass in a blur to reach the finish line. Approached as art - every race becomes holy and is a sacred passage. There are no demands. Only experiences. We allow and surrender, introduce and subtract and view every scene and every person as a shared participant in our creation. There's no pressure - when a race calls for speed - we offer speed. Every lull a scared pause. We allow what is and wish for nothing more than this and even in our projections forward (it happens) we know it is an essential process - an inner pull - of moments yet to be. We relax. We bring to the race all we have and wait for the course to ask its need - we know we will provide and be provided for - we are co-creators. We are at once the Artist and the Art - our steps unfolding beautifully and in beauty. Holy.

Is it possible?
Sure.
We only need to remind ourselves it is.
It's our run after all.


Peace,
Eric

*Dedicated to those who run as Art. You know who you are.

Day Hike

Day hike today at Cunningham Falls in Frederick County - it's beautiful country there and only a 45 minute drive from the Baltimore area. Every time I go out there I ask myself why I don't make the (minimal )effort to run and hike there more often. I hope to make it a priority this summer - at least once or twice a month. It also reminded me of how much I love to just hike - long or short - and the time on the feet is perfect, low(er) impact training for ultras. Not too mention that walking in the mountains is in itself its own reward. We're planning some fairly extensive distance day or multiple day hikes this summer through the fall and I'm really excited about this - it's definitely getting back to my roots. And that was my day - and it was pretty awesome. Hope yours is as well. Thanks for reading!

Peace,
Eric

Letter To A Friend

I wrote this quite some time ago and a friend recently brought it back to my attention. (Thank you) Just wanted to share and hope it may help anyone who needs some words from a friend.


~


 In this life of ours we will presented with the lofty peaks of our attainment and
fulfillment. Yet from every peak will be the often sudden and sometimes gradual
ascension to the valleys of our despair and hopelessness. This is the life of all who
enter the realm of desire. This is our life and we share the rise and fall, the peaks
and the valleys with every other person alive now or ever.

Certainly the Buddha faced the valley of despair as he left his family in the dark of
night in search of answers to questions barely formed. And again certainly in his six
years search of enlightenment he must have touched upon the lofty peaks of
spiritual attainment. And yet every peak proved to be a temporary slope back to the
level ground of everyday existence.
In desperation the soon to be Buddha sat himself under the bodhi tree and
declared the end to chasing distant peaks. Enlightenment would come to him or
not at all. And so it did and what the Buddha found was that suffering was a fact
of life. And more startling…was that although pain will indeed be a constant
visitor throughout every life…suffering itself is optional.

If we were to ask, perhaps the Buddha would tell us that we suffer in the "valley"
due to our longing for distant peaks. The valley itself is just as it is...painful
yes...but the suffering is ours alone. By clinging to what we wish for, to what we
long for, we deny ourselves the experience of what each moment may hold for us.

My friends, the pain that life offers, the loss and the fear are all spring boards for a
new life. When we deny ourselves the gift of pain we miss the deeper healing that
takes place. And again we repeat the self inflicted wounds in other moments, in
new relationships and differing experiences.
With every ending comes pain...and with this pain...indeed perhaps the pain
itself...is the very healing and peace we seek.

My hope for each of you is to find your salvation within this valley. And then may
you see that the peaks of your distant longings...are yours forever.


I love you,
Eric