Writing Reality

  I arrived home to our apartment and Norman said he was going over to his parents’ home; his father might not make it through the night. The man who’d been like the father I’d never had was on his way out. Norman said, “Dad has been tanking since Wednesday.” My heart sunk ever more so. Norman’s father had been the only related adult I knew aside from my husband that cheered on my commitment to long distance running. I could talk to his Dad/Herbie about the military, business, exercise and running.     Soon we were off to Norman’s parents’ home. It’d reached nearly 90 degrees that sunny afternoon. We entered the dimly lit room where Dad lay in a hospital bed, one room off the main entrance’s foyer. Mom called us over. She had just extracted fluid from Dad’s lungs. We followed Mom up to the kitchen. She gave us an update—she realized he might not make it through the night. Yet wanted me to try and get some of his medicine into him with applesauce as she and Norman s...

 It was 1985... Before getting to the office, I’d planned to run fifteen miles with strength advanced fartlek like so: first two miles was the warmup on the road which would be mostly uphill from three tenths of a mile to about a mile and four fifths, then flat to the first two miles—and that would be when I’d start the stopwatch on my wristwatch and run hard for five minutes, then I’d run easy for two minutes—next a hard three minute pick up, followed by a minute run rest easy and finally a hard one minute pick up followed by a thirty second run rest easy stint. I proceeded to do five sets of this drill on the road covering 62 minutes and 30 seconds and then an easy two-mile jog back to the Haledon High School cinder track a half mile away from our Woodside apartment. I was motivated when I got to the track. So, instead of an easy four laps to get an even fifteen miles in before work—I ran four quarter mile intervals, like so: 87, 85, 88, 91. I did a little jog of a minute in betw...

As I finished my second exercise set this afternoon... I was ready to pass by a neighbor that lives 420 meters from our home. He is age 99. He will be 100 in December. He was cleaning up his yard and clipping his shrubs for tomorrow's town yard pick up. I stopped by to chat with him. He said, "The kids don't want me to do this, like its going to make me die. I think at this point I could die in (pointing to his home) there sitting down or outside doing this." I responded, "You're correct. You gotta live. Do what feels good for you. "  He, at this point can hear me with hearing aids. Though his sight has diminished to two feet within his range, then he can see me. He remembered when my husband passed. We talked about marriage and protecting our children and their future. He remembered who our children were and asked about them. Then we talked about birthdays. I found out that he and I had a ton of birthdays in our families in July and October.  We laug...

You stay alive. Yet it never ends. 35 years ago, today I was supposed to be dead. But here I am currently sitting behind a computer writing this to you, the reader. This would not be an ordinary death. No. Not one that anyone would like to talk about—your spouses, your family, your friends and so forth. This death would be filled with rage. I will say rage enough to take out Putin and all his armies at least. I still feel that today, deep down in the basement of my soul. That rage still moves me. Oh, I’ve gone to and gone through the best therapies. Yet it remains. Perhaps my business here is not done. I might be a conduit of some sort. Who knows. I thought this morning as I gently stretched after chores, hoping my pain would not entice me to withhold my desire to run. Yesterday’s run was brutal. I eeked out 1.31 miles in a 8:23 per mile pace feeling pain the whole way. Thank God, I decided not to work my way through a local ultra-marathon today. It would have been the race I’d treat...

  Author Bio:     Jody-Lynn Reicher, who started running in 1976, served in the U.S. Marines in the early 1980's. She went on to become a marathoner setting her sights on Olympic level running. After tragedy struck in 1991, she ended up having eight hours of surgery for hip graphing and spinal fusion surgery which diminished her goal of Olympic marathon racing. In 2001 she opted to start ultra-marathon running, since she'd lost the ability to run fast without cramping on her right side, even after nearly a decade of physical therapy. Since she was too pained to sit for long periods even after the surgery, she eventually changed her career from finance/accounting to provide massage therapy and bodywork for medical purposes. She was an ART certified since 1997 to 2017.. She dealt primarily with pain patients, and injured athletes in her therapy business.      After her husband of over 36 years passed in  2020, she focused on getting their daughters into ...

          The rain storms we had yesterday that lasted into and through the evening, I'd wondered when we'd had summer storms such as this.             Prior to last night's storms, during yesterday morning I'd thought about this as I'd finished my training run. I began my 400 meter cool down walk home. I saw two neighbors. I asked, "Do you remember a cool summer like this one?" One said she'd been thinking about that.     The three of us stopped what we were doing and recalled various dates of events in the past 30 years.     After I got home, I cleaned up and went to writing and editing my autobiography. This, being encouraged by a friend, a long time writer specializing in the martial arts who has written for Blackbelt Magazine.      I proceeded to write and edit for hours. I then ran an errand and was back at it again. As I re-read the first 50 pages, I found myself laughing at stories I'd...