Confessions of a reluctant runner. Part 13, Confessions of a resilient runner

Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone…

– Joni Mitchell, “Big Yellow Taxi”

Who’s got two thumbs and could be found, once again, running along the River Valley trails in the fair city of Edmonton?

This guy! (imagine me standing with my thumbs pointing toward my chest, grinning)

This week I laced up after six long months away due to injury (see Confessions Parts 7-12), and  have decided to give it a go. Did I make this decision after carefully evaluating my current condition? No. Did I prepare for this decision by adhering to a strict conditioning regiment? No. Did I make the decision the night before, after finding myself annoyed by the fact that I’ve had a running shoe-shaped hole in my core that I haven’t been able to fill, which has no doubt contributed to the fact that I’ve recently had to update my wardrobe by way of upsizing? Yes. So this past Monday I packed my running kit in the morning and eagerly awaited the lunch hour.

As I ventured out into the slightly rainy afternoon, I felt excited, yet apprehensive; these first few strides would be telling. What if my heel pain flared up? What if I found myself unable to step out of bed the next morning? What if I waited all this time only to put myself back to square one? As I came to the to the corner, jogging in place until the light changed, I noticed how alarmingly tight my calves were; I guess there’s something to be said for stretching before hand. However, I was nonetheless optimistic about how my feet were doing, and I made a mental note to ice them that night for good measure and prevention. I had already determined to take a short route as I was going to ease myself back into things; and good thing I did! Not halfway through my run I was feeling tired and really, really out of shape. What the hell! As I laboured through the rest of my run I started to think, “What about all the biking I’ve been doing? What about all those afternoons where I had to battle the wind head on in order to make it home? Where the hell has my cardio gone to?”

I made a conscious effort to put those thoughts away and focus on my run. After all, I was just starting out after six months. Clearly, I had been taking my former conditioning for granted. Clearly, I will have to give myself time to return to a state that is at least close to what I was before. Clearly, I will need to be patient with myself. Clearly, this will be a problem for me, as you may well know. Yet, I know I need to press on as these months have been quite troubling for me. All the time that I had been running, I wrestled with the question as to whether or not I could properly call myself a runner, or just some guy who would go for a run. The distinction, in my mind, was of some importance and yet now, as I work to reclaim that part of my life, I realize how foolish I had been to struggle with silly semantics. Who cares if I didn’t belong to any clubs, or never travelled to different places expressly to join in races, or hadn’t actually take the time and effort to train properly. I was a runner; I know that now. It took an injury, poor decision-making concerning said injury, a bout of mild depression, the discovery that I am, in fact, a shite swimmer, and months of cursing my feet to realize this. I was a runner, and although I will never compete or be particularly adept at it, I will be a runner once again.

It’s just going to take some time.

Craicmonkey’s Storytime Delights #6

Guji Guji by Chih-Yuan Chen

One day an egg rolls down a hill and right into Mother Duck’s nest. Soon enough it hatches and out comes a rather odd-looking duckling named, Guji Guji. Not just your run of the mill ugly duckling, no Guji Guji  is one really ugly duckling (as ducklings go), but Mother Duck loves all her ducklings the same. One day three nasty crocodiles come out of the grass and stumble upon Guji Guji and realize that there is something familiar about this “duck,” something they can exploit to get close to the flock, if Guji Guji will just go along with them.

Guji Guji is trapped between loyalty to his duck family and the newly discovered, yet undeniable bond with the hungry crocodiles. Which way will he choose?

With unique illustrations by the author, it’s a story that shows that, in the end, family is a bond that goes deeper than blood, no matter how different you may seem to be from the rest of your flock.

Beware of the Frog by William Bee

Here we have a sweet little old lady named, Mrs. Collywobbles. Here we see her little house, which just happens to be situated on the edge of a big, dark, scary wood. I can only imagine she got a great deal on the purchase price; location, location, location, as they say. What’s worse, and yes, it gets worse, is that this particular forest is home to some terrible, smelly, and very hungry creatures! What’s an old lady to do? Not to worry, her little pet frog will protect her… that’s right; her little pet frog. Oh, you may laugh, but perhaps you failed to notice the sign on her gate that clearly reads, “BEWARE OF THE FROG.”

Lavish illustrations by the author, entertainingly written, and with a twist at the end, Beware of the Frog will delight your audience, young and old, with its humour that is more than just slightly askew.

“GOBBLE!”

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin, Jr.

A classic! Plain and simple. Brown Bear, Brown Bear is a delightful book that combines simple, repetitive text with the unmistakable artwork of Eric Carle. Young children are introduced to a series of animals with corresponding colours, including a brown bear, a green frog, a blue horse, and a purple cat; because it’s Eric Carle, and in his world, very much like the world of children, there is absolutely no reason why a horse cannot be blue and a cat, purple.

Written in glorious simplicity that encourages children to read along, either literally or figuratively, and matched with illustrations that have the vibrancy of a rainbow, this is a book that belongs in every storytime collection and at home.

The long and winding road, in which my iPhone becomes an ad hoc dashboard cam

I love the mountains. I love visiting them; I love walking by them; I love driving through them.

This year for our vacation the family hopped in the van and drove from Edmonton to Calgary, Alberta to visit my sister and then on to Kelowna, British Columbia. After a four days in Kelowna, we headed up to Hinton, Alberta to visit more family and then back home to Edmonton. A lot of driving was done, including a 15 hour marathon drive through the Canadian Rocky Mountains along the Icefields Parkway (not recommended). As we initially approached the Rockies on our way to Kelowna, I decided to take a couple of photos of the mountains ahead of us. I’m not sure what made me decide to continue, but what follows is a driver’s eye view of our journey.

What is not included are the delightful sounds of the two young children in the back.