The Intriguing Deena Kastor

In her blog posting of Dec 31 2007, Deena Kastor wrote the following paragraphs:

"Beijing is only eight months away. Between now and then I will log over five thousand miles. I will go through 15 pair of DS Trainers. I will take 200 ice baths. I will log 600 hours of afternoon naps. I will get more than 200 massages and have a total of about 1000 acupuncture needles. All this in an effort to maintain health and get as strong as possible.



Along with training hard and intensely taking care of myself I hope to stay connected with the simple joys that have kept me running for the past 24 years. I hope to still hear my feet landing on pine needles. I hope to maintain playfulness as I toy around with a faster cadence. I hope to weave through the trees and feel the rhythm of my breath. I hope to notice the seasons changing. I hope I still jump at the chance to chase a leaf blowing down the street. I hope to be aware enough to feel sweat starting to gloss my neck. I hope to playfully hop over rocks and roots without breaking pace. The greatest thing I can ask for is to be joyfully running my way to Boston and Beijing. Greater still would be that our entire Running USA team will be together on that flight to China this summer."

It's evident how hard these pro athletes train (that's 530K per pair of performance trainers). It's wonderful that in the midst of all that running, she's not lost the gist of it all - why we run. It's about the simple things like having fun out there and I hope to take this approach in all my running. I believe that we over here take things too seriously. So many times have a greeting of "G'morn" or a simple wave not reciprocated. It's basic courtesy, even though I'm not hard up for it. After all running raises the endorphin levels and when you feel good, it shows - you wave hello, you greet fellow runners on the road, you smile. I do that nearly all the time when running the Hartamas route. While my greetings are returned most of the time, there are the usual suspects who find it so hard (or are they to shy?) to return the same. C'mon, lighten up! If it's not too fun getting out there, it can only mean it's a chore. And if that's the case what's the point of heading out right? Smile! If you're a fast runner, run slow sometimes. If you're a slow runner, run fast sometimes! Run in the mornings, run in the evenings, whatever! But have FUN AND SMILE!