The Peachtree Road Race has come and gone.  I finished it in one hour, twenty-eight minutes, and twenty-four seconds.  The super athlete road racers needn't worry about my overtaking them, but then, that's not what this journey is about.  I lost fifty-five pounds, showed up to walk and… Read full post »

2 timothy 4:7

2 timothy 4:7

It truly is upon us.  My black and purple running shorts and brilliantly purple, wicking running shirt are laid out on the bench in the hallway.  There are small working--yes, I checked them--safety pins attached to the holes in the four corners of my race number, Y90351.  Th… Read full post »

Six minutes straight on the sun-soaked Lovett track without needing a walk "break."  Steely calves, strengthening thighs, breathing better regulated.  Fancy purple running outfit.  Plans to meet this evening to test drive the Peachtree course.  Race day approaches faster, like the… Read full post »

I am suspicious.  I have no words.  A teenager is dead.  Dead.  Do you remember when you were seventeen?  Do you deserve to die because you were foolish then?  Were you foolish?  Is wearing stereotypical clothes and presuming to exercise your human freedom foolish?&… Read full post »

Beloved,^* I do not consider that I have made it my own;^* but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, ¹⁴I press on towards the goal for the prize of the heavenly^* call of God in Christ Jesus. ¹⁵Let those of… Read full post »

That Judi is my sister is convenient and coincidental, but first you should know she has been a friend to me this year, in ways she probably doesn't even realize.  Even before that, I should tell you about the Christmas of 1970.

 I was a precociously adultish child,… Read full post »

Months and months ago, I posted on Facebook a photo I took from the top of Mt. Kennesaw.  I took the photo after climbing to the lookout point.  It was a gorgeous clear (March?) day with--as my artist daughter noted--remarkably rich gradation of sky color for a cell phone photo.  Here… Read full post »

 Quanta¹

4.5 miles.  Average speed 4.3 mph.  Top speed 9.1 mph (sprinting the last block to the coffee shop?).  My tazo.com tea leaf reading: "I see a huge mountain you must climb."  Are you kidding me?  Is Overlook Mountain not huge enough for you, Mr. Gr… Read full post »

How about that.  I absolutely can last one minute.  On my own.  My Morning Run drogies usually push me longer than that, but this was all by myself.  Then I walk at my usual brisk pace for six.  Run--whether up or down--for one minute.  I can last a minute… Read full post »

One minute running, regardless of the incline or decline.  Six minutes walking.  Repeat to end of one hour, eight minutes back and forth.  Increase each week on the standard up-and-down Overlook Mountain – Paces Ferry Road route.  Today, that meant 9-10 minutes running with… Read full post »

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Athletic grace.  It's growing.  Athlete?  Don't make me laugh, but what there is, is growing like that mustard seed.  4.0 miles down and up Overlook Mountain, then 2.2 miles around the apartment complex makes one Peachtree Road Race length, in one hour, forty-two m… Read full post »

Seasons change, both naturally and unnaturally.  The former manifests in soggy, mostly brown leaves in quantities too great even for relentless gas-wasting leaf blowers; the latter by virtue of  the arbitrariness of Daylight Savings Time.  Thus, the up-and-down of the Peachtree Trainin… Read full post »

Walked Saturday morning with Morning Run.  Didn't walk again until this evening.  Thanks be to God for walking and for the grace of desire to walk that overcomes all the excuses not to walk.  In fact, I'd rather walk than sit and that in itself is a transformation of… Read full post »

Just a thought today.  The four-mile trip has become routine, but not quite.  Today, a front yard that has always had a dusty layer of boring and tired on it was completely turned over, revealing freshly exposed, almost violently red Georgia clay.  And the smell.  I'm not much of… Read full post »

Subtleties build up until they make you pay attention.  Today I didn't wave my hand in front of my eyes again and again while walking, which I'm sure has caused passers and driversby to wonder what invisible imps I tilted against.  Today it was cool and brisk enough to keep the… Read full post »

As I sat at the Starbucks with two Morning Run friends, I noticed how I was sitting: board straight posture without any conscious effort.  The back of my neck was damp along the hairline and calves and thighs were sending a low-key message that I had just walked a… Read full post »

No great literature here today, folks.  Many others have written more eloquently and have done more in-depth study about the soul killer that is about to happen.  I have no idea how "innocent" or "guilty" Mr. Davis is.  I just know that it's not going to help anything… Read full post »

"Cherish is the word I use to describe..."  It's getting easier and easier to conquer the upslope out of my apartment complex and Mt. Overlook on the return trip.  Four miles, a generous helping of up and down slope.  How familiar I have become with all the little details of that… Read full post »

I wrote as my Facebook status: "I laugh at your Mt. Overlook!  What else you got?"

 My legs and lungs are feeling pretty full of themselves in this cooler, breezier clime.  So, I notice something else in the Peachtree Prep Path besides sweat pouring down the back of my neck… Read full post »

How did I get here?  The path out of my apartment complex is rather steep.  But I found myself on Paces Ferry Road, just passing the CVS on the right and about to pass the library, also on the right.  How did I get here?  I was so lost… Read full post »

I don't know.  But I wonder.  I wonder how it went today.  I wonder if you stayed at your Mom's overnight so as not to have such a long drive before the service(s).  Could I have slid in the back door, sat in the last row, listened to you, and… Read full post »

Multiple shades of brown and yellow leafy scattered mess everywhere, even in places where my fellow humans have pointlessly and noisily consumed fossil fuel to blow the leafy mess to the sidelines.  Leaf blowers don't blow away the brown tattoos they--ahem--leave on the sidewalk, do they? … Read full post »