{"id":2274,"date":"2012-03-13T11:56:59","date_gmt":"2012-03-13T18:56:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/randomandodd.com\/?p=2274"},"modified":"2012-03-13T11:56:59","modified_gmt":"2012-03-13T18:56:59","slug":"easy-light-smooth-and-fast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/randomandodd.com\/?p=2274","title":{"rendered":"easy, light, smooth and fast."},"content":{"rendered":"<style type=\"text\/css\">\n.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }\n.flickr-yourcomment { }\n.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }\n.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }\n<\/style>\n<div class=\"flickr-frame\">\n\t<a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/obnoxiousaries\/6843631465\/\" title=\"photo sharing\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm8.staticflickr.com\/7173\/6843631465_22660b51f7.jpg\" class=\"flickr-photo\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<br \/>\n\t<span class=\"flickr-caption\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/obnoxiousaries\/6843631465\/\">Untitled<\/a>, originally uploaded by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/obnoxiousaries\/\">Random and Odd<\/a>.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"flickr-yourcomment\">\n\t\u201cTry the meditation of the trail, just walk along looking at the trail at your feet and don\u2019t look about and just fall into a trance as the ground zips by,\u201d Kerouac wrote. \u201cTrails are like that: you\u2019re floating along in a Shakespearean Arden paradise and expect to see nymphs and fluteboys, then suddenly you\u2019re struggling in a hot broiling sun of hell in dust and nettles and poison oak\u2026 just like life.\u201d <br \/>\n\u2015 Christopher McDougall<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have to write about this book!\u201d was the first thing I thought of when I awoke this morning.  I had spent 8 hours reading it from cover to cover.  <br \/>\nI have been back on my reading spree since Alyx put The Hunger Games trilogy in my hands at the beginning of this month.  I can\u2019t just casually read a book. I pick up a book and I start to read and I don\u2019t put it down. It\u2019s frustrating to those around me.  \u201cWhat\u2019s for dinner?\u201d \u2026.\u201dWhatever you can find.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Late last afternoon I picked up \u201cBorn to Run\u201d by Christopher McDougall.   I had been flipping around the ultra runner blogs and the barefoot runner blogs and in each they had quoted or mentioned in some way, this MUST READ book.   I wasn\u2019t even sure what the book was truly about because Ultra running is one thing, Barefoot was  another. Right?<br \/>\n  The full title didn\u2019t give me any more information other than it was about a tribe of superathletes and the greatest race the world never seen.  Vague. <br \/>\nRegardless, I bought the book to just to be able to say, \u2018yes I read it\u2019 when people would come up to me and ask me after seeing me wearing my Vibrams if I had read the book.  Now I see how stupid that is because I started wearing the shoes before I read the book and it\u2019s not why I was wearing them.  My first introduction to barefoot running came from running behind Tabitha for miles and miles and watching her leg muscles get super defined.   I figured she was some sort of mutant woman who could morph into whatever she was doing and that is why she took to running so well and why her legs were rocking hot.   Then Dan got a pair of them and after miles and miles of running behind him I noticed the same definition of muscle that hadn\u2019t been there before.<br \/>\nI also noticed that I was a good 5 minutes behind Dan on the uphill when before I could take him all the way to the top.  No, I couldn\u2019t catch Tabitha\u2026but that woman is a mutant superhuman running machine and when you put Vibrams on her feet she floated up hills.<br \/>\nAfter watching the both of him do the uphill work on Steven\u2019s trail and look like they were out for a walk in the park, while I was rolling around in the parking lot like a dog\u2019s chew toy after a good thrashing, I decided I was going get a pair for myself and see if truly did make a difference. <br \/>\nIt made a difference and now I am one of those people that want so badly to preach the joy of barefoot running, but I\u2019m doing all that I can to shut up and just say, \u201cYes, they are very comfortable. No it doesn\u2019t bother me that I have things between my toes and no I don\u2019t feel every single rock I step on.\u201d Because I don\u2019t want to be the person that says, \u201cI can\u2019t believe you wear those feet coffins!\u201d  <br \/>\nI\u2019m not there yet because of my true love of my Brooks Cascadias. <\/p>\n<p>The Brooks Cascadias brings me back to this book.<br \/>\nI wasn\u2019t really sure what I was getting into in the first 5 or so chapters of the book.  Was this book about the crazy guy? Was it about the writer looking for complex answer to his simple question? Was it about the Tarahumara people and their ability to not only run fast, run for long distances  AND be smiling and laughing while doing it?  Was the book about the shoes they wore, or better yet, the LACK of shoes they wore?  Was it about the start up how the ultrarunning began and how it evolved? The pioneers in the sport? Nike? The Olympics? The Big Bang Theory? \u2026.what the fuck was this book about and when was I going to finally \u2018get into it\u2019.<br \/>\nIt crept up on me. I was actually \u2018into it\u2019 long before I noticed I was into it. I couldn\u2019t put it down to save my life.  Then it started talking about the Western States 100.  I actually swelled with pride when the author mentioned Gordy.  How could he not? The bad ass that pioneered this shit in our own backyard. I have read every single account of Gordy\u2019s 1974\u2019s little jaunt in the woods that I can find online.  I have actually seen him running on the trails and each time I look back at him and I am certain what I am seeing isn\u2019t real. How could it be real? How could the man that ran the first Western States run be running on the same trails as I am at that same day? Impossible.  I have been running and I told Tabitha and Dan, \u201cI swear that was Gordy.\u201d  And each time they will respond with, \u201cWho?\u201d   <br \/>\nI found him on Facebook. There\u2026ON FACEBOOK.  I had the option to \u201cadd as friend\u201d? not just like, but ADD AS FRIEND?  Are you shitting me?!  I\u2019ve never added anyone on Facebook. I feel like it\u2019s a bit presumptuous and I feel awkward about it so I have never added anyone until my mouse hovered over \u2018add a friend\u2019 next to Gordy\u2019s name.  I must have sat there for a good 5 minutes debating on if I should click the damn button.  \u2018He won\u2019t accept me. He doesn\u2019t know who I am. He has NO idea how inspired I am by his story of crazy oddball people that saw what he did and said, \u2018yep, I wanna try that too.\u2019 And low and behold we have a new sport.   I didn\u2019t even go searching for the first guy that thought, \u201chey I think I will jump out of a plane\u2026\u2019 when I started skydiving, but bet your ass I learned all about the history of skydiving because if I am going to do something, be it jump out of a plane or attempt to run 100 miles, I\u2019m going to know how it got started and why.  <br \/>\nSo I clicked \u2018add as a friend\u2019.  Heart hammering in my chest, I laughed. \u201cI just requested Gordon Ainsleigh as a friend on Facebook\u2026that\u2019s funny.\u201d   And about 4 days later, he accepted that friend request.  Floored doesn\u2019t cover it.   Then about a month later he commented on my facebook wall. <br \/>\nI\u2019ve seen Alyx in the past year do this crazy obsessed teenage thing whenever anything about Taylor Swift or Hunger Games presents itself.   I became Alyx that day. \u201cNO FUCKING WAY!!!\u201d  No one of course understood the excited girly squeals of delight and breathless recounting of the story of how he commented because Gordy isn\u2019t walking the red carpet or playing televised sports.  Nope, he\u2019s just that one guy that ran 100 miles with some horses and started this thing that I have grown to love\u2026even though I have never once made it into the place of ultra running.  I am like a child in awe of a adult that is able to walk around so effortlessly while I teeter and fall over after 10 minutes of holding myself up next to the coffee table.<\/p>\n<p>Oh yeah, I was talking about the book.  They mentioned Gordy and I felt such pride for my trails that he calls his home and started thinking about how many seasons he has seen on those trails, the changes he has watched through the 40 plus years of running he has been on them. I have 1 year under my belt. How weak.   <br \/>\nThen they started talking about other runners running the WS100 and I felt pride for those people too.  <br \/>\nThe writer gave me a relationship with each of these people that I felt I understood each one on a personal level.  Barefoot Ted, yeah\u2026I get his ranting and raving about shoes. I understood the free spirit of Jenn and Billy, they were born to do this\u2026that was what they were destined to do.  I got Scott during the point of exhaustion when he had nothing left and there was no way he could keep going, but he did\u2026and won\u2026and set a record.  I don\u2019t get that part\u2026YET.  I do get the part where you pick yourself up from the side of a trail and just keep going because you have no other choice.  That hasn\u2019t just been my experience with being on these trails, but in life.  Why keep making lemonade? Because life enjoys seeing me squeeze the fuck out of these damn lemons, THAT\u2019S WHY. <br \/>\nThis book wasn\u2019t about the WS100, but some of the runners in the book knew the pain of the WS100 , so it kind of was.  It wasn\u2019t about barefoot running, but it kind of was. It wasn\u2019t about the Tarahumara tribe\u2026well, yes it was, but it was so much more.<br \/>\nIt was about a group of people that had one thing in common and it was a special kind of spirit. <\/p>\n<p>Tabitha had suggested I watch, \u201cThe Way\u201d.  I did and I understood why she liked it so much. It embodied everything we had learned last year about how you can connect with a person on a different level by just walking with them.  You have time to hear stories. You understand why they pack their Camelbak the way they do. You see the type of person they are when you\u2019re walking, hiking, running, jogging and just soldiering up a hill.  Me, I pack everything in my camelback.  I want to be prepared to nurse someone back from the edge of death if need be.  Tabitha is a whimsical woodland fairy whose pack has the essentials to make sure that her time is fun and practical.  Bug spray, lip balm and a bag of trail mix.   Dan\u2019s isn\u2019t so much what is in his bag, but the efficiency  of which he has packed it.   I\u2019ve brought others on trail runs and it\u2019s interesting to see what they bring.  Each person has a story to tell just by what they bring or don\u2019t bring and how they manage to get it packed in.<\/p>\n<p>The times I have had out on the trail with each person is a different story of strength, vulnerability and growth. <br \/>\nIt has shown me that the core of who I am will always be the same. I am a survivor if I like it or not.  The odds of me just lying down to accept what the world has offered up are pretty nil.  As much as I joke that I will be the first to go when the zombie apocalypse comes, I realize that I won\u2019t. I will be the one helping people to safety and nursing them back so they can fight another day. <\/p>\n<p>Last night I had a dream about this race I am doing with a bunch of friends and I guess the book I managed to digest in 8 hours had a part in it. I was in the middle of this race and I got competitive. I\u2019m not a competitive person at all. You want the gold? Okay, here I will help you get it. Oh, I have the gold and you want it? Here, you can have it.   In this dream though, I was clawing to the top of this hill with a friend of mine and I was doing all that I could to get past him to the finish line. It wasn\u2019t first place we were fighting for, it was to not be last.  Somewhere above us we heard his wife yelling down at us two to knock that shit off and have fun.   Then we did. We both fell backwards back into this mud pit we had been trying to claw out of and laughed.  Then it started to get fun and we forgot about the fact that somewhere along the race I had burned half my hair off and he had a swarm of dead and splattered bees in his shirt and shorts.   In my dream I was laughing with my friends.<\/p>\n<p>Tthat\u2019s why I loved this book so much. I could get out of my head for a few minutes and read about the love of doing what I do and how it started.  It started because I was letting gravity pull me along these trails that I had walked before and knew what the end of the trail brought me, another beautiful trail\u2026and if I moved just a little bit faster I could get there and see it before the day was over.  If I kept going I might just find one more magical place.<br \/>\n  If I just went a little bit further\u2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Untitled, originally uploaded by Random and Odd. \u201cTry the meditation of the trail, just walk along looking at the trail at your feet and don\u2019t look about and just fall into a trance as the ground zips by,\u201d Kerouac wrote. \u201cTrails are like that: you\u2019re floating along in a Shakespearean Arden paradise and expect to see nymphs and fluteboys, then suddenly you\u2019re struggling in a hot broiling sun of hell in dust and nettles and poison oak\u2026 just like life.\u201d \u2015 Christopher McDougall \u201cI have to write about this book!\u201d was the first thing I thought of when I awoke this morning. I had spent 8 hours reading it from cover to cover. I have been back on my reading spree since Alyx put The Hunger Games trilogy in my hands at the beginning of this month. I can\u2019t just casually read a book. I pick up a book and I start to read and I don\u2019t put it down. It\u2019s frustrating to those around me. \u201cWhat\u2019s for dinner?\u201d \u2026.\u201dWhatever you can find.\u201d Late last afternoon I picked up \u201cBorn to Run\u201d by Christopher McDougall. I had been flipping around the ultra runner blogs and the barefoot runner blogs and in each they had quoted or mentioned in some way, this MUST READ book. I wasn\u2019t even sure what the book was truly about because Ultra running is one thing, Barefoot was another. Right? The full title didn\u2019t give me any more information other than it was about a tribe of superathletes and the greatest race the world never seen. Vague. Regardless, I bought the book to just to be able to say, \u2018yes I read it\u2019 when people would come up to me and ask me after seeing me wearing my Vibrams if I had read the book. Now I see how stupid that is because I started wearing the shoes before I read the book and it\u2019s not why I was wearing them. My first introduction to barefoot running came from running behind Tabitha for miles and miles and watching her leg muscles get super defined. I figured she was some sort of mutant woman who could morph into whatever she was doing and that is why she took to running so well and why her legs were rocking hot. Then Dan got a pair of them and after miles and miles of running behind him I noticed the same definition of muscle that hadn\u2019t been there before. I also noticed that I was a good 5 minutes behind Dan on the uphill when before I could take him all the way to the top. No, I couldn\u2019t catch Tabitha\u2026but that woman is a mutant superhuman running machine and when you put Vibrams on her feet she floated up hills. After watching the both of him do the uphill work on Steven\u2019s trail and look like they were out for a walk in the park, while I was rolling around in the parking lot like a dog\u2019s chew toy after a good thrashing, I decided I was going get a pair for myself and see if truly did make a difference. It made a difference and now I am one of those people that want so badly to preach the joy of barefoot running, but I\u2019m doing all that I can to shut up and just say, \u201cYes, they are very comfortable. No it doesn\u2019t bother me that I have things between my toes and no I don\u2019t feel every single rock I step on.\u201d Because I don\u2019t want to be the person that says, \u201cI can\u2019t believe you wear those feet coffins!\u201d I\u2019m not there yet because of my true love of my Brooks Cascadias. The Brooks Cascadias brings me back to this book. I wasn\u2019t really sure what I was getting into in the first 5 or so chapters of the book. Was this book about the crazy guy? Was it about the writer looking for complex answer to his simple question? Was it about the Tarahumara people and their ability to not only run fast, run for long distances AND be smiling and laughing while doing it? Was the book about the shoes they wore, or better yet, the LACK of shoes they wore? Was it about the start up how the ultrarunning began and how it evolved? The pioneers in the sport? Nike? The Olympics? The Big Bang Theory? \u2026.what the fuck was this book about and when was I going to finally \u2018get into it\u2019. It crept up on me. I was actually \u2018into it\u2019 long before I noticed I was into it. I couldn\u2019t put it down to save my life. Then it started talking about the Western States 100. I actually swelled with pride when the author mentioned Gordy. How could he not? The bad ass that pioneered this shit in our own backyard. I have read every single account of Gordy\u2019s 1974\u2019s little jaunt in the woods that I can find online. I have actually seen him running on the trails and each time I look back at him and I am certain what I am seeing isn\u2019t real. How could it be real? How could the man that ran the first Western States run be running on the same trails as I am at that same day? Impossible. I have been running and I told Tabitha and Dan, \u201cI swear that was Gordy.\u201d And each time they will respond with, \u201cWho?\u201d I found him on Facebook. There\u2026ON FACEBOOK. I had the option to \u201cadd as friend\u201d? not just like, but ADD AS FRIEND? Are you shitting me?! I\u2019ve never added anyone on Facebook. I feel like it\u2019s a bit presumptuous and I feel awkward about it so I have never added anyone until my mouse hovered over \u2018add a friend\u2019 next to Gordy\u2019s name. I must have sat there for a good 5 minutes debating on if I should click the damn button. \u2018He won\u2019t accept me. He doesn\u2019t know who I am. He has NO idea how inspired I am by his story of crazy oddball people that saw what he did and said, \u2018yep, I wanna try that too.\u2019 And low and behold we have a new sport. I didn\u2019t even go searching for the first guy that thought, \u201chey I think I will jump out of a plane\u2026\u2019 when I started skydiving, but bet your ass I learned all about the history of skydiving because if I am going to do something, be it jump out of a plane or attempt to run 100 miles, I\u2019m going to know how it got started and why. So I clicked \u2018add as a friend\u2019. Heart hammering in my chest, I laughed. \u201cI just requested Gordon Ainsleigh as a friend on Facebook\u2026that\u2019s funny.\u201d And about 4 days later, he accepted that friend request. Floored doesn\u2019t cover it. Then about a month later he commented on my facebook wall. I\u2019ve seen Alyx in the past year do this crazy obsessed teenage thing whenever anything about Taylor Swift or Hunger Games presents itself. I became Alyx that day. \u201cNO FUCKING WAY!!!\u201d No one of course understood the excited girly squeals of delight and breathless recounting of the story of how he commented because Gordy isn\u2019t walking the red carpet or playing televised sports. Nope, he\u2019s just that one guy that ran 100 miles with some horses and started this thing that I have grown to love\u2026even though I have never once made it into the place of ultra running. I am like a child in awe of a adult that is able to walk around so effortlessly while I teeter and fall over after 10 minutes of holding myself up next to the coffee table. Oh yeah, I was talking about the book. They mentioned Gordy and I felt such pride for my trails that he calls his home and started thinking about how many seasons he has seen on those trails, the changes he has watched through the 40 plus years of running he has been on them. I have 1 year under my belt. How weak. Then they started talking about other runners running the WS100 and I felt pride for those people too. The writer gave me a relationship with each of these people that I felt I understood each one on a personal level. Barefoot Ted, yeah\u2026I get his ranting and raving about shoes. I understood the free spirit of Jenn and Billy, they were born to do this\u2026that was what they were destined to do. I got Scott during the point of exhaustion when he had nothing left and there was no way he could keep going, but he did\u2026and won\u2026and set a record. I don\u2019t get that part\u2026YET. I do get the part where you pick yourself up from the side of a trail and just keep going because you have no other choice. That hasn\u2019t just been my experience with being on these trails, but in life. Why keep making lemonade? Because life enjoys seeing me squeeze the fuck out of these damn lemons, THAT\u2019S WHY. This book wasn\u2019t about the WS100, but some of the runners in the book knew the pain of the WS100 , so it kind of was. It wasn\u2019t about barefoot running, but it kind of was. It wasn\u2019t about the Tarahumara tribe\u2026well, yes it was, but it was so much more. It was about a group of people that had one thing in common and it was a special kind of spirit. Tabitha had suggested I watch, \u201cThe Way\u201d. I did and I understood why she liked it so much. It embodied everything we had learned last year about how you can connect with a person on a different level by just walking with them. You have time to hear stories. You understand why they pack their Camelbak the way they do. You see the type of person they are when you\u2019re walking, hiking, running, jogging and just soldiering up a hill. Me, I pack everything in my camelback. I want to be prepared to nurse someone back from the edge of death if need be. Tabitha is a whimsical woodland fairy whose pack has the essentials to make sure that her time is fun and practical. Bug spray, lip balm and a bag of trail mix. Dan\u2019s isn\u2019t so much what is in his bag, but the efficiency of which he has packed it. I\u2019ve brought others on trail runs and it\u2019s interesting to see what they bring. Each person has a story to tell just by what they bring or don\u2019t bring and how they manage to get it packed in. The times I have had out on the trail with each person is a different story of strength, vulnerability and growth. It has shown me that the core of who I am will always be the same. I am a survivor if I like it or not. The odds of me just lying down to accept what the world has offered up are pretty nil. As much as I joke that I will be the first to go when the zombie apocalypse comes, I realize that I won\u2019t. I will be the one helping people to safety and nursing them back so they can fight another day. Last night I had a dream about this race I am doing with a bunch of friends and I guess the book I managed to digest in 8 hours had a part in it. I was in the middle of this race and I got competitive. I\u2019m not a competitive person at all. You want the gold? Okay, here I will help you get it. Oh, I have the gold and you want it? Here, you can have it. In this dream though, I was clawing to the top of this hill with a friend of mine and I was doing all that I could to get past&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-random"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/randomandodd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/randomandodd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/randomandodd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/randomandodd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/randomandodd.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/randomandodd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2274\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/randomandodd.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/randomandodd.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/randomandodd.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}