Damsel Diaries 11 years ago DAMSEL DIARIES // TIME TO RUN
I ran the streets of Paris and you were there. I pushed through the cliffs of Catalina Island as thoughts of what I would write fluttered through my brain. Over the hills of Santa Barbara, step by step around the paths of Central Park and all the while you were right by my side. As I limped through the windy city of Chicago and ached over the humidity in Orlando I felt something pushing me forward. Block after block around Los Angeles and never for a moment did I feel alone.
There is something truly solitary about running. The past couple of months of running has served better than any therapy session ever has. Tomorrow I will fight through the steep hills in San Francisco as I complete my longest run to date: 13.1 miles. This journey all began because I read “What I Talk About When I Talk About Running.” So, it is only fitting that I end on a few quotes from this book {which is now my favorite}.
“I look up at the sky, wondering if I’ll catch a glimpse of kindness there, but I don’t. All I see are indifferent summer clouds drifting over the Pacific. And they have nothing to say to me. Clouds are always taciturn. I probably shouldn’t be looking up at them. What I should be looking at is inside of me. Like staring down into a deep well. Can I see kindness there? No, all I see is my own nature. My own individual, stubborn, uncooperative often self-centered nature that still doubts itself–that, when troubles occur, tries to find something funny, or something nearly funny, about the situation. I’ve carried this character around like an old suitcase, down a long, dusty path. I’m not carrying it because I like it. The contents are too heavy, and it looks crummy, fraying in spots. I’ve carried it with me because there was nothing else I was supposed to carry. Still, I guess I have grown attached to it. As you might expect.”
“It’s precisely because of the pain, the we can get the feeling, through this process, of really being alive—or at least a partial sense of it.”
“That was the rule. Break one of my rules once, and I’m bound to break many more.”
“The end of the race is just a temporary marker without much significance. It’s the same with our lives. Just because there’s an end doesn’t mean existence has meaning. An end point is simply set up as a temporary marker, or perhaps as an indirect metaphor for the fleeting nature of existence.”
“Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional.”
“You have to wait until tomorrow to find out what tomorrow will bring.”
Follow my run tomorrow, Sunday October 20th at 6:30AM PST {search for me: Jacey Duprie, Bib # 6874 on this site and follow along}
*I write from my heart, not from my head, so please excuse any typos*
0 Comments Join the Conversation