Screws In My Coffee

I work near the last natural sand dunes in Georgia.  I have driven by the dunes for  about four months and today I decided to run on them. I have not run on any trails since early 2009.  I have been running one to three miles on the  concrete trail along the Flint River with my road shoes. Today I worked until almost sunset so I decided that it was a good day to run in the sand dunes. What I first noticed about these dunes when I arrived in Albany is that on weekends they are full of all terrain vehicles (ATV) and dirt bikes.  During the week they are used as a sand quarry.  There are no trespassing signs on all of the gates to the dunes.  It looks like the local thrill seekers and Albany State University (ASU) athletes ignor these signs.  I have observed some ASU track athletes training on the sand dunes.  I use to run in the deep unpacked sand on the beach when I lived in Southern California.  I know the training benefits of running in deep sand.  I want to build up strength in my ri...

My wife asked me how I felt after one more year on the planet.  I responded to her question with the fact that I do not measure my life, goals and accomplishements by the birthday calendar.  I measure my goals by the calendar year.  Every goal that I have set for myself is based on the calendar year, not by my birthday. So in my usual fashion, once I make a statement of this is how things are, I ask why?  So I decided to make a birthday based goal.  I already have a goal to run in the Snickers Marathon in Albany Georgia in March 2011.  So on my 60th birthday I will run my second 100k race which is a hare over 62 miles. So this is a long two year goal. I have done this before so I know it is not impossible.  There is a different twist with this goal in that I do not know where I will run the 100k.  that is the part that I will have fun planning while I am training.

Today I created the possibility for running in the Snickers Mardi Gras Festival Marathon in 2011.   This marathon is held each year in Albany, Georgia on March 5, 2011. I have completed my hiatus from running.   My long break from running came when I completed a 62 mile trail run in January 2009. I had to stop running because I could not afford to buy running shoes due to my immense credit card debt.   I have since paid off all of my credit cards, started a new job in a new city, so I started running again this month. Starting to run again allowed me to break a barrier that I have been through before.   Even though I am nowhere near to the physical condition I was in when I ran 100k in 16 hours, my mental state is unstoppable.   I know that I can train myself back to the level so that I can run 26 miles on the road. I had great coaching when I was taking running classes in Austin Texas.   I am starting off slow and I will gradually build up my running distance and speed through patien...