Literary Running

I got a book from the library today, "The Runner's Literary Companion: Great stories and poems about running." It's edited by Garth Battista.

I may have to break down and buy a copy for myself. I haven't had a chance to go through it too thoroughly just yet.

But here's one poem I'll share with you, my loyal readers.

Strategy for a Marathon by Marnie Mueller

I will start
when the gun goes off.
I will run
for five miles.
Feeling good,
I will run
to the tenth mile.
At the tenth
I will say,
"Only three more
to the halfway."
At the halfway mark,
13.1 miles,
I will know
fifteen is in reach.
At fifteen miles
I will say,
"You've run twenty before,
keep going."
At twenty,
I will say,
"Run home."


So, I typed that in because it was short and fairly easy to type. On some level, it is motivational. It provides a bit of a roadmap for me as my training for the Sunburst Marathon is about to get more intense.
Yet at the same time, I'm not sure that I'd call it great poetry. Your thoughts?

Music from the Ozark Hills

It seems that the majority of people who look at this blog on a daily basis have some connection to Winfield, Kansas.

Given that fact, I know you love hillbilly music. Now hillbilly music isn't exactly bluegrass music. I understand.

Anyhow, check out the link for the movie Homemade Hillbilly Jam. I think you'll find it interesting.

A quick run

Today I overslept and didn't have time for a good relaxing run. But the weather was too nice just to go to work. When I heard them say on the radio that it's 51 degrees out, I had to go running. In shorts and a short-sleeved t-shirt.

So I ran over to the building where I drop off my rent. Then I headed over to one of my favorite streets to run on - Trafficway. It's got bike lanes so I feel a bit more relaxed about the minimal traffic. But more importantly, it's got rolling hills and fairly nice views to the north and also our wonderful new minor league baseball park. If only the road were longer.

But for the time available today, it was convenient and fun.

Weather policy

So, stopping by the Little Rock Marathon web page, I saw their weather policy. Since I know you're curious, here it is:

WEATHER POLICY
All races will run as scheduled regardless of weather conditions. Rain does NOT stop marathoners and lightning will only delay the start.

So lightning delays the start, does it? But if lightning happens in the middle of the race, what do you do? Just run faster?

Not quite springtime weather

This Saturday I had a pretty decent run, especially considering that it was only 40 degrees. Of course, only is relative. The temperature has been going up and down relatively wildly lately. And I've been so stressed out at work I've mostly been running on the treadmill to make sure I don't get too far away from home/work in the mornings.

Saturday I noticed the big difference from the treadmill and running outside. The wind. Whoo, the wind blew hard on Saturday.

I only intended to go about four miles but I turned down some roads I'd never been on before and the whole run turned out to be about 7 miles. Not too bad. It felt pleasant except at the end when my fingers started to feel a tad frozen.

Absolutely no leaves on the trees, but a good run none the less. Running outside has really got me feeling more in tune with nature as I longingly wait for the leaves to return and more birds too.

Now, of course, I'm trying to get ready for Little Rock. I'm looking forward to getting away for a weekend. According to weather.com, the low in Little Rock this weekend will be 46 with scattered thundershowers. That shouldn't be too bad. I hope it's a nice pleasant downpour during the race.

Anyway, I'm excited. My goal is to have fun. Hopefully, I'll at least be able to do that.

Always Time for Me to Go Running

Today is the last Sunday in Ordinary Time.
Lent starts on Wednesday, Ash Wednesday.

On the first Sunday of Lent, I will run the Little Rock Half-Marathon.

There are six weeks of Lent, a preparation for Easter.

Easter, for Catholics, Orthodox and others who follow the liturgical calendar, is not a day. It's too much joy to fit into just 24 hours. Easter is a season that lasts for seven weeks. It culminates with the feast of Pentecost.

On the day before Pentecost, I will run the Sunburst Marathon.

And after that, we return to Ordinary time. That continues until Advent, when we begin preparation for Christmas. But right now, Ordinary time is just about over and won't return until after I've completed the big race on the day before Pentecost.

It's now time to shift my training into a different level - physically, mentally and spiritually.

Coincidence?

And what of this talk of Ordinary time anyway. I remember my friend Warren Farha once said, "How dare we call any of it ordinary time?"

No, our time is never ordinary. But ordinary refers to the Latin root ordinal, meaning counted. Our time is never ordinary. It's a gift from God.

Be kind

Here's something to tuck away in your "why you do what you do" file.

Most people who I've talked to extensively have heard me discuss my favorite book store, Eighth Day.

Heck, they're partially responsible for the name of this blog. And how many other stores have a section reserved for the Athletes of Prayer ?

This morning, I flipped open an old book and found an old Eighth Day bookmark. All the bookmarks come with quotes from the early church fathers. On this one, a quote from Philo of Alexandria:

"Be Kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle."

Now this quote is ostensibly about other people. But it's also about you because you are someone else's other person.

And so, you are fighting a great battle. This can be a shocker, especially for those who aren't training for a marathon or quitting their job to woo a dream. Maybe the quote has to do with spiritual warfare. But I think it's less esoteric than that. Shouldn't we have something bigger to do with our lives than debating what's really happening on Lost and voting multiple times on American Idol.

I mean, isn't there something you should be doing? What are you fighting for? And shouldn't that struggle be fun?

No black,no white; just Penn State blue

My dad sent me this news article.

It's one of the reasons that he's proud to bleed Penn State blue.

I'll tell you about Knute Rockne fighting the Ku Klux Klan some other day.

My Ipod

I bought a little Ipod Shuffler recently. It was mostly for running on the treadmill to break up the monotony of running hard but staying in one place. But I've found it so much fun that I'm wearing it when I walk to work or go other places. I mean, I hear all these songs from my collection that I hadn't listened to in months.

I love this line I just heard — "I don't care about the cold baby, 'cause when you're hot, you're too much."

Is it in you?

I do like that Gatorade tagline? I remember my first 6 mile run early one Sunday morning several months ago. I was running down the road at various times I'd beat my chest and silently ask myself Is it in you?

Anyhow, here's a quote I came across that has that same theme: "Anyone can dabble, but once you've made that commitment, your blood has that particular thing in it and it's very hard for people to stop you."

Can you guess who said that? Click here.

Off the back

Today got off to some start.

I didn't have much time for a run when I woke up but I figured so I headed over to the Y for a couple of hard miles on the treadmill. Two miles at about an 8-minute pace. That was my goal.

Well, recently I bought an Ipod-Shuffler to help with treadmill running. Things were going real well until about the end of the run when I needed to skip forward to a couple of better songs.

I was close to being finished with this tough workout when all of a sudden I was flying backwards through the air. I landed on my feet and all but it was a little bit embarassing.

Anyway, all in all, it was actually a pretty good day. Especially considering that beginning.

From homegirls & handgrenades

I love used bookstores. I especially love the books I found in used bookstores that I still own.

I'm not sure where I lived when I bought Sonia Sanchez's book homegirls and handgrenades.

Here's a poem from it.

Haiku
(written from Peking.)

let me wear the day
well so when it reaches you
you will enjoy it

This is not about being normal

Every so often as I go through my days, something reminds me of why I'm training to run a marathon. An exceptional came last Sunday at a class at church.

Today I was reading a newspaper column that reminded me again why I want to do something like run a marathon. On the side of this page, there's a link to several blogs, one of them belonging to my friend Jody. The picture on his homepage isn't really what he looks like.

Anyway, Jody's a phenomenal mandolin player. Arguably one of the best in the world. By far he's one of the best mandolin players I know.

He's in a band called Big Smith that you ought to know about. You may think you don't like hillbilly music, but you don't know what you're talking about. No sir, you don't.

Anyhow, after a small hiatus, Big Smith is about to start making new music and touring the country. Check them out if you get a chance.

One of the reasons they're going to tour is an epiphany that Jody's wife had. Here's the essential part of what she said to the writer, Mike Brothers:

"Life's not about normal. It's about not being normal, about the exceptional."

That's part of why I want to run a marathon. For me, it will be an exceptional effort.

Watching Jody play the mandolin can be inspiring. To see other people run a marathon has inspired me. And hopefully, I can do the same for someone else.

Winslow, Arizona

This may sound crazy, but I've been thinking a lot about Winslow, Arizona lately. I've never been, but I wonder what it would be like to just live there. I could be a cook in some restaurant kitchen. Or a bouncer in a bar. Even though I've lost some weight, I'm still pretty strong. And I have a temper.

Or I could be a bartender. Or something. I could have some real low stress job where I go to work and I leave. Nobody would think of me as a celebrity or an important person with important thoughts. I could get up and run in my free time. And just completely relax.

Could I do that in Winslow, Arizona? Or San Diego? Chicago? Miami? I just have this nagging feeling like there's someplace out there a whole lot more fun than where I'm at. And right now, I really want to have fun.

Right now it seems like I only have fun when I'm not at work. And that's not why I have the job I have.

Of course, I've got to make sure not to let the sound of my own wheels drive me crazy.

Take it easy

I'm wondering what I'm doing? Why have I been keeping this blog?

It started as a record of my training for a marathon, a marathon I'm now registered for. I used to send e-mails around to three friends with the subject line "training update." And now this.

But I hate to think of myself as a blogger. Hardly anybody reads this blog anyway.

The two most common searches that bring people to my blog are badonkadonk and bumaye.

Badonkadonk being a reference to the Trace Adkins song and an embarassing story I told about running in a half-marathon in Memphis last year.

Bumaye comes from the phrase Ali Bumaye - Ali kill him. A chant that runs through my head sometimes, especially when I'm running on Kings Lane.

Lately, several internet surfers have come looking for info on one of my favorite movies . That's Cool Runnings! I wonder how much it costs on dvd.

I'm not really sure what I've got to say that's of value to anyone in this format. I try to run and train basically. That's it.

I don't know. Maybe I'll keep blogging, maybe I won't. Right now I think I'm going to take a break.

Running map

A colleague of mine at work directed me to the coolest web site today at work.

It's called Running Map. Fortunately it doesn't work on my computer at work, or I could waste lots of time on it.

It's fairly easy to use and it helps you pinpoint on a map you're running route and you can figure out pretty much how far you've gone.

Check it out.

Enjoy what you're eating

I've had a theory for a long time about food.

The theory goes that if you enjoy what you're eating, no matter how bad it might be fore you, the positive endorphins released by your pleasure with your food will counteract anything in the food that's bad for you.

Today I read in the New York Times a fascinating column that basically proves me right . It's beautiful.

Here's the bottom line: Your body absorbs more nutrients from a healthy meal that you enjoy than from an equally healthy meal that you're not all that crazy about.

So when you sit down to eat today, make it something that will put a smile on your face.

Little Rock weather

Well, the countdown to Little Rock continues.

I'm getting pretty excited. Today I ran four hard miles on the treadmill all at a pretty fast pace.

I would have run outside but it was icy. Note, I said icy. I don't mind the cold so much (sub 20 degrees temperatures today), but I was a little concerned about slipping and falling. I slipped a little bit on my short walk to the Y.

I'm hoping the weather in Little Rock is warmer in two weeks. It's a mini-vacation and so I'm hoping it's nice and relaxing. Today in Little Rock, according to the weather channel, the high was 25. The 10-day forecast says it should be a high of 60 on Feb. 28 and a low of 43. That might be warm enough to run in just shorts and a t-shirt. A long-sleeve t-shirt if nothing else.

If nothing else, I hope the roads are clear for a smooth drive down there.

Because size matters

Well, this time two weeks from now, I'll have finished the Little Rock Half-Marathon. I'll have the world's largest half-marathon finisher's medal.

I may be losing weight, but size still matters. Hehe. That was a little joke.

But really, they say that they're "big and bodacious" in Little Rock. And you thought everything was bigger in Texas.

But that's not the only reason I chose Little Rock. It's also the sight of one of my greatest athletic triumphs. That was the basketball game when I scored more points than the other team. Granted, it was just second grade, but still, it's a good memory.

It will also be interesting to see if I hear anybody from Wichita. How will I know what state they're from? They'll be the ones who pronounce the state's name "Our-Kansas" rhymes with pass as opposed to "Our-Kansaw."

Love

Today at church I heard a man say "Love is not just an emotion. It is an action and a commitment."

Walking I home, I thought _ isn't that what training for, running and completing a marathon is all about?

The body you want

This morning I was flipping through an old Runner's World magazine when I came across an ad for some treadmill-like conraption. It said "Get the body you want - in half the time."

I went to the Y a little later and spent an hour on an elliptical trainer machine. I spent quite a bit of time thinking about that ad.

The body I want.

What in the world would that be? I know when I was younger, maybe there was a certain body I wanted. I lifted weights, ate lots of double whoppers (extra tomatos and extra onions) but never quite made it. Even when I gained weight nobody noticed. Maybe I should have moved to San Diego so I could go to the beach and take off my shirt.

Anyway, now, in the last seven months or so, I've lost 30 pounds or so and the weight is still coming off. But does that mean I'll have the body I want? I hate to say that seems like a vain goal and I'm above such things.

But really, I'm not into the whole lifting weights to get ripped or get huge. It's my belief that form follows function. And the function I'm working towards is running 26.2 miles on June 3.

It's about fun

So I woke up this morning and turned on the radio. I heard the host talking about Lindsey Jacobellis although I had no idea who she is. Apparently it had been all over the news that she got the silver medal because she showboated and fell.

This guy on NPR was going on and on. Finally he quoted Jacobellis. She said she was just having fun. Falls happen. No big deal.

I wish people could just focus on that. I mean I'm sick of hearing people talk about how Olympic athletes are failing to meet their goals and live up to expectations.

It seems all these commentators forget they're the Olmypic Games. They're supposed to be fun.

It's official

It's official. Today I registered for the Sunburst Marathon. I've put my money where my mouth has been. I'm excited and motivated and I think things are going pretty well. I'm nervous and I know I'll be nervous lots between now and June 3 but I'm trying to think positive thoughts.

Apparently something is a little different this year with the marathon because the website has been updated recently so it no longer talks about finishing on the 50 yard line of Notre Dame stadium but instead finishing on the Notre Dame campus.

Really, it doesn't matter where I finish as long as I finish.

Losing hope is easy

So I'm sitting here reading newspaper columns on my computer while music plays and I get a reminder of why I'm training for a marathon.

Songs were playing in the background and Jack Johnson sings, Losing hope is easy..."

And that kind of sparked me out of the funk I was in a bit. It reminded me of this quote I came across recently. A local athlete chose to go to West Point instead of Truman State. This is what he said: "It won't be easy, but easy is boring. I want challenges."

And at this moment, I realize that I have a training date with a treadmill. Right now.

Express yourself - part two

I've been thinking a lot lately about some other lyrics from that song, "Express Yourself."

Specifically these:

It’s not what you look like, when you’re doin´ what you’re doin´.
It’s what you’re doin´ when you’re doin´ what you look like you’re doin´!

Express Yourself!
Express Yourself!

The song is simply about dancing. But it reminds me of a wonderful story I once heard when I was talking with African musician Samite Mulondo.

Samite told me that when children are young and they hear music, they automatically start dancing. Yet as they get older, they impulse fades and fades. Finally they are so grown than they have to be really drunk before they start dancing. He was coming to town to perform at Bethel College and at the end of his performance, everyone would be dancing and there wouldn't be any alcohol to be seen.

Express yourself

I've got a portion of a song stuck in my head today. Not that I'm complaining, mind you. I just thought I'd post these lyrics up here so that you'd have the joy of having them running through your head also:

Some people have everything,and other people don’t.
But everything don’t mean a thing
if it ain´t the thing you want.

Express Yourself!!
Express Yourself!!

Gotta love Lou Holtz

Today I woke up and I didn't feel like running at all. I had one beer too many last night. ( Remember Knute Rockne's rule.) But it was early. Part of me wanted to get out and do something.

Then I sat on the toilet and picked up the book, Quotable Lou.

I read this quote on potential: "I can't believe that God put us on this earth to be ordinary."

And that helped get me out the door. And, all things considered, I had a pretty good run. Gotta love Lou Holtz.

Inspirational Sports Movies

This morning a colleague of mine recommended I watch the movie Saint Ralph .

It's about a 9th grade boy who wants a miracle for his sick mother so he runs and wins the Boston Marathon. Or something like that. I haven't seen the movie yet so expect another blog post after I find it and watch it.

Anyhow, his comment reminded me of something I meant to do with my recent Cool Runnings post.

I wanted to ask you guys what your favorite sports movies of all time are. I plan to incorporate some movie watching into my marathon training. And movies that deal with running will be especially appreciated.

Feel the rhythm, feel the rhyme

The title for this blog post comes from one of my favorite movies ever. Cool Runnings.

With the Winter Olympics on tv and all, I've been thinking about that movie a lot lately. Especially the scene that is most important.

The big scandal is that the coach, John Candy's character had been a darn good bobsledder at one point. But he wanted to win so badly that he cheated. When one of the Jamaican bobsledders confronts him about it and asks why, the coach says he had his priorities out of whack.

Basically, he said, the gold medal won't make you whole. If you're not enough without it, you won't be enough with it.

Thinking about that makes me think about why I want to run the marathon. As cultural currency, a marathon finisher's medal has a lot less value than a medal from the Winter Olympics. And I've already got a finisher's medal from the St. Jude Half-Marathon. For most people, that is awe-inspiring.

Why do I want to run 26.2 miles with a number paper-clipped to my shirt? Running, for the most part, is fun. I enjoy it. On top of that, I enjoy challenges. With the weather so cold today, it was tougher than usual. But it was still good to get out there and see what I could see and run as far as I ran.

But also, I love challenges. I pretty much know I'm not going to scale Everest or Kilimanjaro. But I think I can do this and I'm excited about it. I want to push my body to the limit and know that I survived. And if I don't survive? I will survive. I will finish the race.

It might not mean anything to me, but it will mean a lot. No coach will pull me out and say I don't look like I know the play. No one will say I'm too skinny or too fat to run the race. In fact, no one else but me really has much to say about how it's all going to go.

And I say it's going to be a great race, a lot of fun. Cool running, you know?

Commandment keeping

I've gotten into a routine of reading a passage from the book "Beyond Words: Daily Readings in the ABCs of Faith" by Frederick Buechner as I wait for my computer to boot up. The length of the meditations about matches my wait for the machine to get ready.

In one of the readings, Buechner mentioned something that Emily Dickinson once wrote to a friend: She wrote that "Consider the lillies of the field" was the only commandment she never broke.

I was reminded of that on today's run, about 13 miles in 25 degree weather, a good portion of the run through a neighborhood aptly called Southern Hills. A tough run, but I'm glad I did it.

Spirit in the Sky

I just read a story about Norman Greenbaum which I think is amazing and hilarious in a brilliant sort of way.

Now possibly you're wondering, who is Norman Greenbaum?
Well he's a musician who made many songs but only one that you remember. Spirit in the Sky, baby. Not a cover of this song, but thanks for thinking of Aretha.

I was listening to it on mynew Remember the Titans cd when I heard the lyrics and thought, Hmm. He's talking about Jesus.

Then I saw his name was Greenbaum and that struck me funny too. So I started searching to see what I could learn about Greenbaum.

Turns out he really is Jewish. I found an article written on Jewhoo that was fascinating.

Here's an excerpt from that profile: "The writing of Spirit is the story of a bunch of things coming together. Greeenbaum saw country singer Porter Waggoner on television singing a song about a preacher. That gave him the germ of an idea (after all these years, Greenbaum cannot even recall the name of the song). He determined that he was going to write a religious rock song. Greenbaum figured, much like the many Jewish writers of Christmas songs, that there was a lot bigger market for a song that mentioned “Jesus” than one that mentioned, say, some Hebrew name for G-d. He told me that the lyrics came really quickly. The music took months to work out."

I guess it's one of those truth is stranger than fiction things.

How could the lyrics come so fast? Well here they are:

When I die and they lay me to rest
Gonna go to the place that's the best
When I lay me down to die
Goin' up to the spirit in the sky
Goin' up to the spirit in the sky
That's where I'm gonna go when I die
When I die and they lay me to rest
Gonna go to the place that's the best

Prepare yourself you know it's a must
Gotta have a friend in Jesus
So you know that when you die
He's gonna recommend you
To the spirit in the sky
Gonna recommend you
To the spirit in the sky
That's where you're gonna go when you die
When you die and they lay you to rest
You're gonna go to the place that's the best

Never been a sinner I never sinned
I got a friend in Jesus
So you know that when I die
He's gonna set me up with
The spirit in the sky
Oh set me up with the spirit in the sky
That's where I'm gonna go when I die
When I die and they lay me to rest
I'm gonna go to the place that's the best
Go to the place that's the best

Running Haiku 2

In the freezing cold
Under the hot summer sun
Let me run with you.

The Tool Shed

I'm placing a few new links around the blog. The one I most want to bring your attention to is The Tool Shed.

It's a very entertaining blog by a fellow I met in Nashville, Tennessee.

Mr. Tool includes on his blog this entertaining quote from William Faulkner: "A writer without a bottle of whiskey is like a chicken without a goddamn head."

Enjoy.

The Winter Olympics

This post may make me seem a bit shallow. However, that hasn't stopped me from saying things that make me look bad before, especially in those posts that contained the word badonkadonk.

Anyhow, I really wasn't planning on watching the Winter Olympics. I'm not planning on watching much tv at all in the next few months as I train for the Sunburst Marathon on June 3.

However, this story from the Washington Post has got me interested.

I don't know about you but I always used to root for the black person back whenever there was one on Jeopardy or Wheel of Fortune.

Now, I think I'll pay just a bit more attention to the Winter games. And, yes, I'll be rooting for the USA, but I know me. I'll also cheer for black folks.

This does make me wonder though: whatever happened to the Jamaican bobsled team?

Big Rock Music and Little Rock Music

Committed readers will remember my first post of the year about the surprisingly inspirational Big Smith song, "No sir." You wouldn't think that a song called "No sir" would motivate you to move your feet, but it's really catchy.

Recently I picked up the album it appears on, Big Smith's classic release "Big Rock." I've been listening to the song quite a bit and I've come to the conclusion that maybe the song writer isn't fluent in Spanish. I could be wrong. But here's exhibit A. One verse of the song goes:

The only words in Spanish
On highway forty-four
Say checkpoint straight ahead
So you know who they're lookin' for
So tell me why does not one say
Bienvenidos enjoy your stay
You can't tell me that there's no other way.

"Bienvenidos, enjoy your stay." Now, I'm not really a songwriter, but half of that sentence - well one word - is in Spanish and the other half - three words - is in English. I don't mean to be too picky here, but I'm not even sure if that qualifies as Spanglish.

Anyhow, my next big run is actually going to be in the town of Little Rock - the Little Rock Half Marathon. I'm pretty excited about it and I think training is going well. And they've got the world's largest marathon finisher's medal.

My last race was in Memphis, Tennessee and that definitely lent itself to finding some good motivational music associated with the city. I don't know quite as much about Little Rock's musical heritage. If there's any Little Rock music you recommend I listen to or Little Rock music labels I should visit while down there, please leave a comment.

Thanx.

Running haiku

This blessed route goes
uphill both ways, my dear,
I run it for you.

New 5k PR

I ran a 5K on Saturday, the Run with the Big Dogs 5K, at a park near my house. It was cold. I've now learned that means there's a good chance to place well. (That's because a lot of people wimp out in the cold and the field is smaller.)

My friend Mark, who lives near the park, placed third in his age group. It was his best time and the first time he placed.
When they got to my age group, the person who finished third actually had the same first name as me. And when he went up to accept the medal, I recognized him. I saw his back for a good part of the race ... and I actually finished 4th in my age group.

I had wanted to pass somebody near the end but he was way too far ahead of me. However, somebody was right on my tail and I made sure I didn't get passed at the end.

This could be sparking unhealthy competitive fires. I remember the shirt I saw during the half-marathon in Memphis that said, "Be a completer not a competer" on the back - let me repeat, on the back. As I ran by you, don't take it too seriously, just be a completer, not a competer. Well that type of thinking doesn't really apply in a 5K race. I can't imagine too many people start a 5K wondering if they'll be able to finish it and an hour or so later your mind should be playing games with you.

Anyway, here's the really big news. In my last 5K on Dec. 10 I finished in 29:52. Saturday I finished in 28:36. That's nearly an improvement of a minute and a half.

Dedicated blog readers may remember that in that Dec. 10 5K, the Jingle Bell Run, I met my goal for 2006 of running a 5K in under 30 minutes. Maybe my goal now should be to run every 5K about 90 seconds faster than the last one. Hmmm.

Super Steelers

Congratulations Jerome Bettis and all the Steelers.

Great game!

Super Bowl Halftime

The best line of the show: Here's one we could have done at Super Bowl One but good things come to he who waits.

Thank you, Mick Jagger.

OK. So I'm wondering: next year Bob Dylan?

Pope Marvin

Pope Benedict XVI recently published his first encyclical. It's called Deus Caritas Est .

That translates to God is love.

So my only question is who was playing on the cd player when Pope Benedict was working on this?

Black History Month

I saw the sunrise over the trees on the South Creek Greenway this morning. Yes, I was running from Sunshine to Golden again.

It was a beautiful morning to run an errand. And I do mean to run an errand. It was a 13 mile run. My travels took me out just west of Golden on Battlefield.

Battlefield. Doesn't that put hymns in your head?

"I am on the battlefield for my Lord."

Or how about this one:

My mother,
She was a soldier,
She had her hand on the gospel plow.
But one day she got old,
she couldn't fight anymore
She said I'll stand here
and fight anyhow.

And then there's the chorus:
We are soldiers in God's army.
We have to fight although we have to die
We have to hold up the blood-stained banner,
We have to hold it up until we die.

I remember hearing that song a lot in church when I was younger. Why don't they sing the old songs like they used to. It's all got to be the new stuff, the hip stuff, the stuff that sounds like it was ripped off a rap album.

Anyway, one of the things that song puts in my mind is just black history and everything that my people had to go through. So as I was finishing up my run today, I remembered that this is the first day of black history month. I told myself to run harder. My forefathers and foremothers had to struggle so much. And I was taking it way too easy. So I ran a little bit faster. I don't know if I'll be sore tomorrow. But if I am, it won't be anything like what black people experienced in this country just one or two generations ago.