Friday, February 18, 2011

After 54 years, My 1st Week!

Hi, Friends, Runners, and Fellow Adventurers!

This is my FIRST WEEK here, so please be patient while I figure this out!   As a long-time ultrarunner, I have come to think patience is one of humankind's greatest potential strengths, but it is terribly neglected in this era of ever-greater speed and rushing in all things.

For the moment, let me just say I have been a competitive long-distance runner for 54 consecutive years and counting, and I love it as much now as I did in my first year of high-school cross-country back in 1956. 

I have also come to believe that for early humans, thousands of years ago, long-distance running (as nomadic hunters) played a key role in our evolution and in the development of our unique capacities to endure, envision, and plan.  I explore these themes in more depth on my website, willhumansendure.com.  Here, I will just share some of the day-to-day insights I've had about the ways in which I now think that running profoundly affects our abilities to contribute to our communities as active, healthy, and responsible individuals. 

In the photo, I'm nearing the 15-mile point (on the Appalachian Trail) of the JFK 50 Mile (largest ultra in the U.S.) last November.  I had just taken a bad face--plant on the rocks, but recovered enough to keep going.  I finished 3rd of 71 guys in the age 60-69 division.  Next year I'll be 70!



2 comments:

  1. Welcome to Blogger, Ed!! Congratulations on your 54 years; that is beyond impressive.

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  2. amazing and so inspiring to me!!!
    Thank you for posting this!

    ReplyDelete