Writing Reality

1977 Cross-country Garrett Mountain  Today marks my entering the 51st year of distance running... I've Raced over 500 events... Was told multiple times I shouldn't run long distance or at all... Birth defects: missing disc in my lower back was not discovered till age 30. I was told it was bad for my feet, especially my left foot. Left fibula was twisted on my talus. Doctor told my mother when I was nearing age 15, that if I stopped running by age 18 my heart would be okay.  I was told a couple times that because of heart murmur, an enlarged heart, defect in left ventricle I'd be dead if I ran a marathon in 1985 just after my 23rd birthday... I ran it anyway. I was told at age 21 after severe knee pains I'd never run again.8 months later I was back running. Both ankles had issues. My left constantly was sprained(20x),  I ran through most of that. They wanted to surgically remove the sesamoid bones in both big toes... I avoided what I felt was the problem causing the pain...

  After quitting my job at an organic supermarket late last year, I took two excursions to New England. One was within two weeks of my last day at the market, which was not planned. The next excursion had been planned seven months prior. Now that we no longer have pets and our children are in and out between college and whatnot, I wanted to treat myself to a lallygagging restful stay at a couple hotels in New England and just sleep, run, walk, hike, read, write and eat. Besides having started a new business in 2022 which wouldn’t account for much immediate income; I went back to work for other people in late 2024 and added a second part-time job in early 2025. This was to aid in the funds of taking time to help our oldest over two years move into two new housing and apartment units, as well as her graduating across the country in 2025. By my driving 3,000 miles one way I could bring supplies to her and save us both money. What ended up occurring on the second excursion up north w...

  The chicken sucked, a baby was crying, a granddad was being loud with his grandsons at a table nearby in the diner; however, I couldn’t remember the last time I’d gone out to eat with someone. Especially with a family member. Now, upon further reflection it was June 14 th , 2025, on the Santa Monica Blvd with our daughters and our eldest’s friend after her college graduation. And the food was beef and it was grand—$600 later and still perhaps the best food I’d ever had out. Back to the other night, I was having a meal with our youngest at an eatery of her selection. She was overly distracted, but I understood all the distractions they were fun, anxious and seemingly at top speed. Up until recently I’d been at top speed. Our oldest now has recognized that top speed isn’t always necessary; however, I warned her of the very thing I demonstrated back home to her throughout her childhood—intensity. I remarked, “Your dad was the exception in a spouse handling my intensity as a scienc...

Can we dream what we imagine? That was my thought last night as I lay in bed, only slightly fatigued from my training run and then the over 5 hours of shrub and lawn care amounting to over 22 miles of running and walking during the day. I wasn't mentally taxed as I'd been trying to revive the UltraRunner within me, once again. Yes, I had enough energy at 10:20pm last night to mentally imagine my ultimate peaceful presence with nature as some part of my future. I knew it would most likely be only an imagined dream in part of any future of any kind for me. So, I proceeded in my mind's eye to envision a sunny, yet partly cloudy day, late morning, spring-like, my sitting on our back deck. I wondered what would be with me. First thought was a big, black bear. I knew I'd have to provide some food to show him I was his friend who only wanted to sit beside him. I wondered if he'd let me stroke his fur. Would it be safe? Yet, I would not touch him as he would be eating the s...

As I read the recent issue in “The Atlantic” in the Dispatches section “A Fine Country For Old Men” by Idrees Kahloon, I paused midway on its second page. What struck me was something I’d thought about nearly daily. A question of how my generation and a generation before mine received benefits for their aging out of the workforce. And it wasn’t just that that’d struck me. It was as well, the knowledge that our youngest child states every now and again of how the Boomers have screwed things up for her generation. I’d mostly held my disagreement, keeping it to myself. Yet I did not exactly agree or disagree with her, until I reckoned with all the facts. That’s out of respect for another human being. Yes, respect for a child who’d just become an adult of our modern era. That’s not what happened in my day, nor was it certainly in the family I grew up in. To me, my upbringing compared to today’s standards and mine were an aberration if not a catastrophe. On the outside I appear ‘okay’, some...

This day twenty-eight years ago. Tom Brunetto (he has since passed 2014) and I met at the Ridgewood Duck Pond at 4:15am. We made a pact a couple weeks leading up to this day. We both had topped off at 36 miles. So, we promised each other we would do a 40 miler together. Tom overdressed and forgot shorts, he was wearing long running pants. The temperatures soared passed eighty degrees. I think it hit a blistering eighty-eight degrees. The sky was clear blue. The last eight miles Tom was beside himself. He said he couldn't finish. Instead of my getting upset, I bribed him for the last eight miles to get us to forty. I had no energy left and still had work at 11am till 8:45pm that day. The only rest I'd get was a shower, and a drive at 3:45pm to a doctors office for four more pain patients to treat. So, Tom having other stress in life I decided, since I helped mangle his legs for perhaps a week's recovery I said, "I'll tell you what. You run eight more miles get...