You can be Epic!

   It was a hot Thursday and I was taking my lunch break. This means I had come into the house from doing yard work, and of course had to check my Gmail to see if any interesting jobs had shown up in my inbox, and while I'm at it might as well check Facebook, see what everyone else is having for lunch.
    After looking at some more "jobs just for you in Sparta" (there are no jobs in Sparta) email postings, I looked at Facebook to see if there was anything interesting, you know new Pinterest stuff a picture of a spider inside an Oreo, important revelations. On the sidebar, I think it was, or somewhere there was a notice about a cross country running relay to raise money for the victims of the Boston Marathon bombing.The word RUNNING jumped out at me so I clicked. 
    There I found a long description of the lofty goals for the relay, and the use of the "epic". Epic was intriguing, but not a word I  often use in my mid-pack running world.  
      Reading through again, I saw that all that was asked was the ability to maintain a 10 minute per mile pace. 10 minute miles, I could do that, sure it might be painful, but, heck yes! 
     I then clicked on the RUN button and found the entire route broken up into states and then into stages or legs. Who knew that 10 minute miles were epic? 
    Clicking on MO I was excited to see a leg that ran through my hometown via Route 66 on June 20. I should sign up for this. Doubt crept in. No, forget it,  there will be faster runners who will make it more epic by going faster.
      I stared at the screen. Could I be "epic"? If I signed up would they check my stats and say, "Sorry Mr. Bohannon, we're looking for faster people." 
Even as I sat there looking at the screen, I refreshed and saw that the Missouri legs were filling up (guess other people check Facebook in the middle of the day too!). It felt right. Even if nobody else knew I was running this leg it would be a memory for me to be part of something so big!  I clicked, filled out the info and Bazinga! I was now part of something epic!
      When the Fetching Mrs. B, my running tolerant spouse, called later, she was encouraging even, enthusiastic, meaning I didn't even hear an eye roll over the phone. 
      It was May 23, I had a little over a month to get ready.
      9.5 miles through my hometown. On Route 66! 
      More to tell, but let me say now, it was gonna be epic! 

      Peace my friends!      

Lessons from a Marathon

"At Marathon arrayed, to the battle shock we ran
 And our mettle we displayed, foot to foot, man to man
 And our name and fame shall not die. 
  Aristophanes, "The Acharnians," 425 B. C.

Ah, the marathon. 
"How far is that?" asked a non-runner friend. 
"26.2 miles is a marathon distance, always." I answered.

"You're doing a marathon? Wow! How long is that?" asked an impressed grandchild. 
"We'll see." I answered.

I've been mulling over the results of my last, possibly final, marathon. I ran the Phoenix Marathon on March 2, in Mesa AZ (we could see Phoenix from the starting line) and it was 26.2, that's how far. How long was it? I set a Personal Record, the longest time I have spent on a marathon course. Official time 5:03. 

My longest previous marathon was 4:35 and that's when I said I was done with the distance. That marathon in 2006 in Oklahoma City would be the final one. Turns out it wasn't. 

What I have been mulling over is was there a lesson to be learned from this time spent on the road? Well, many to be honest. 

I learned I might need to train more, no I didn't learn that here, I already knew that.

I learned that all downhill is not necessarily a good thing. 

I learned not to be disappointed with my time, but to be satisfied that I finished upright and not in the medical tent. 

I learned that there were a lot of people who trained real hard and would have been tickled to have the time I had. 

I learned to be a more humble, I am just running a run, not a race.

I learned that "regular" people (non-runners), especially your friends, are impressed that you could keep moving forward for 5 hours. I learned that if you tell them many people were twice as fast, they really aren't impressed. Why? Because they know you and don't know that person who won. I have great friends in Brian and Sue.

I learned that running is part of who I am, no matter how I measure up to other runners. 

I learned that I like Arizona. 

I learned that there is an all uphill marathon in Tuscon. 

I learned that I should never say never again.

I learned that maybe I'll never learn.

Peace my friends. 

Pie On Top

 Being "on top" is a metaphor that never needs explaining, we all know what it means. 
 It sometimes seems our whole life is about getting to the top. We are encouraged to be at the top of our class, beginning with kindergarten to make sure we are in the top few chosen to attend a top university.
  Given a piece of higher ground, whether a pile of dirt, a baseball mound, or a uneven sidewalk or path, kids (boys in particular) will begin a game of King of the Hill, or being on top, up higher,over the others.
  Be your best, work your hardest, play with intensity and never settle for being less than on top.  Athletes are continually training, physically and mentally to remain at the top of their game. So it is in the business/ work world always pushing for the top.
  The top is always farther along. Higher up than it looks. Harder to attain. When you do attain it, according to society, you will experience fulfillment. You will be able to see the whole world below you and know you have made it, made it to the top, to the tip top of....what? 
 American culture tells us that making it to the top of life means working toward the day when being on top will no longer matter. The term for this is "retirement", and whether you are talking to a newly graduated college student, or the parent who has just got that student (their last) through college, they have the same goal make it to the top. Work hard, retire on top. 
 I too have had those aspirations and have thought if I could just get a little higher on the salary chart, be a little higher on the seniority list and be an employee of high value, I could plan to make it to retirement. I could stand on top to that mountain representing my lifetime of accomplishments and look down on all the other people still struggling to get to the top and know I had lived the American dream.
  I have been on track for that day for the past 25 years, and the plan was even accelerating to come true perhaps three to five years earlier than I had planned. Retire at 60, or at least change directions. That would put me on top. 
  Well, here's the real world. I have made it to the top. It's wasn't as far as I thought it would be. Because my employer, despite my goals, has it own goals of how to get to the top of the business world and it no longer includes me and my goal. The top came about 3 years before I expected it. 
   So here I am, at the top of this hill where the path ends. Many might think it's not the top, but the edge of the cliff, but I'm seeing it more as the place from which to scout the future. I think that from this vantage point, I may be able to see more of the possibilities than I might have had this happened 10 years ago. Back then I farther down the hill, hacking my way through the wilderness to the top. 
 I'm going to take this opportunity to look around, get the spotting scope and the binoculars, heck, maybe even the telescope and see what possibilities abound.  
  What will my encore be. 
  I am thinking of the motto or mantra I have quoted often, "Life is short, eat dessert first!"
   I believe I'll sit here on the hill a while and have some pie. 

  Peace my friends. 

Eat, Pray, Run, Repeat. Race (bibs)

 My daughter-in-law made this cool sign and race bib holder for me. She must think this is all I do. Maybe because these are the things I talk about most. Hmm.
Of the 3, I need to eat less, pray more and run, repeats, 800's or some nonsense like that.
The three do tie together in a nice package though and are really representative of everyday life. Each day we must eat, each day we will pray, probably in some way and sometimes each day seems like runnning a racing to the end of life.
But I find if I balance it out, it's not a race against anyone else, just me trying to get to the finish of another day, finish off another problem, have another conversational prayer with God and try to eat another meal before some makes me start wearing a bib.
Life is good and tomorrow, I'll repeat.
Peace my friends.

Athlete? No, just a runner, thank you.

   I started running while in college. I was encouraged by my friend Al, who as a ROTC student was required to do these "PT" test deals. So every once in a while he would say, "We gotta go run, PT next week!" and we would go. Starting at the Freddy dorm on the SMS campus, we would make a 3 mile loop around Phelps Grove Park, and would come to a wheezing finish. I waited for Al to do other physical things, like push ups and hand over hand ladder deal. None of which I could or wanted to do.
   I am not an athlete. In high school I was the asthmatic student basketball manager who washed and carried uniforms and kept stats. I didn't particularly like athletes, but I did like watching cheerleaders...but I digress.
  Later as an adult I discovered that if I paced myself and used an inhaler (I know steroid enhancement) I could walk and then run. I started running the 1 mile to work. In my small hometown, I was viewed as "weird". The only sports our school had were basketball, baseball and volleyball. To each of which running was punishment, not training.  Finally the school added track and cross country, but by now I was a full grown man, running around and biking, that was just not right (this is the 1970s').
  One year at the local fall festival, the cross country coach put on a 5k. I think there were 15 people. I finished 3 or 4th, I think, second adult behind the coach and way ahead of all the old athletes who thought it was a stupid thing anyway. So there athletes! Ha!
  Then I started running to relieve stress, 5 miles 1 or 2 times a week. This helped me keep my mind clear.
  Then I changed jobs and moved my family to a strange place (Kansas) met another guy who ran to relieve stress and have been being weird ever since (1987).
  When people find out that I run, many are in awe (well, maybe astonishment) that I am an athlete. I remind them I am not an athlete, I'm just a guy who runs, not a lot, not fast, and for sure not smart.
  But they insist that compared to the average person, I am an athlete. So, okay, whatever you want to call me.
  My view of an athlete is someone who follows a plan to get better. Me, not so much.
  I just run. I follow my own path. I don't stretch. I don't eat right. I don't go to races to win. I don't run everyday. Heck, sometimes I don't run in a week. I buy cheap shoes. But that's okay for me, 'cause I'm not an athlete, my paycheck doesn't depend on my performance, only my mental state.
  So if you see me at a race,I don't really want to share what my expected finish time is, finishing on my feet in an upright position is satisfactory.
And for the record, I really don't have a desire to run 'til I puke, ever.
And don't forget that running is more that racing, and competing. Running is what "idiots" do for fun. If it ain't fun....you must be an athlete.

Peace, my friends!

Christmastime is Here!

Another Christmas(time).

Time to anticipate, calculate, meditate, pontificate, hesitate, communicate, demonstrate, and celebrate!

Anticipate: Advent is at the mid-point. What great adventure lies ahead?

Calculate: Check your budget and your commitments. Enough money? Enough time? Enough energy?

Meditate: What's Christmas really about? Maybe a good time to watch "A Charlie Brown Christmas."

Pontificate: Clergy or Layperson: share the Good News of what Christmas REALLY means! If it means keeping Christ in Christmas, does that mean we don't have to think or do anything with or about Christ the rest of the year, just keep him tied down in that manger.

Hesitate: Slow down. Avoid the Christmas rush. The rush to get it over with, the rush to get it all done. He or she who hesitates by the manager is NOT lost.

Communicate: Time to reach out to friends and strangers. Time to make that reaching out a life long everyday habit!

Demonstrate: Show YOUR world what Christmas is.

Celebrate: You know what to do here.......
*cue your favorite Christmas song...perhaps "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!" by Andy Williams, of course.

Peace (on earth) my Friends!

I "Heart" Technology!

   I love technology. Yes, sometimes it is frustrating, and I admit I have very little understanding of how my fingers on this keyboard cause 0's and 1's to show up as letters. The fact that I know it involves 0's and 1's I know puts me far ahead of many in my generation (the mid-boomers). As write (or is it type) this blog, I'm listening to Neil Diamond  (which version of Cherry Cherry is my favorite?) on Spotify, keeping a tab open to ESPN to keep up on the World Series, and thinking that I might watch an episode of the Rockford Files from Netflix via my Wii before I go to bed. Or maybe I'll just read part of a book on my Kindle.
   Born in 1955, I've seen the evolution of all kinds of technology. Black and white TV became peacock color, AM radio was kicked to the curb by FM.  Rotary dial phones replaced by touch tone ditched for wireless, then for 4G (whatever the heck that is!). When I started in sales 24 years ago I was required to check my voice mail 3 times per day. I had to know where pay phones were in every little Podunk town in Kansas, Missouri and Arkansas, some are still there.
  I know I had 2 CB radios in the "70's, when that technology was the rage. You must remember this was still before the first wireless telephone had shown up in any TV shows. Sure, Captain Kirk had his communicator and Batman used a tiny walkie-talkie, both were certainly cool technology. The Star Trek communicator did come to life and I had one, it was called the Motorola Razor Phone, I loved that phone, that low tech....phone, just a phone, what a sad thing. No WiFi or Facebook access.
   Adding machines and manual cash registers replaced first by electronic descendants who in turn have been replaced by computers.I even remember when there were no UPC codes on products and worked in the grocery store in Springfield that had the first scanners.
   Technology is even ready to throw waiters and waitress under the bus by being on your restaurant table top allowing wireless reordering of drinks, desserts, paying your bill and leaving the tip, while your wait staff does something else.
   Music technology is the most amazing. I remember the first record player my parents got for me and my brother. It was a red and white box, 3 speeds. It was portable, the case closed and had a handle. We had records that were current rock and roll songs that my parents must have liked along with some kids records. I remember "Big Girls Don't Cry" He's A Rebel", and some others. As a matter of fact I think those are still in my possession along with other vinyl 45's and albums. We also had a small reel to reel recorder and made several productions of our own similar to the famous Chicken Man shows, with music.
   I progressed from there to 8 track and even had my own Panasonic recorder to make mix tapes of my favorite albums and be able to play them in my car. 8 track players mounted under the dash were big during my high school years. Just to show how technology moves, I have a 1999 Ford Explorer that has both a cassette player and a CD player to help ease through the transition into the 21st century.  
I could go on and on, VHS, CD's,  streaming, iPods, and oh yes Spotify.
What's next? Who knows, I'm thinking that if I"Google" "show me the future" maybe I can get the answer.
You know what, I "heart" Google too! BTW, 7th inning stretch, score is tied 0 to 0. Go Cards!
Peace, my Friends.