Dear friends and family,
Could you lend me some money for some running shoes? I have to run my third marathon soon, and now I am taking sidetrips through the trails.
For all you intrepid runners or hikers or walkers or even deskbound environmentalists...the title of the blog is not intended to be totally existential or metaphoric. I run and think about my current physical place and alot about my emotional place.
After moving to about the furthest part of the American West I could get after a few years of wandering, I landed in real civilization - Los Angeles. The first thought which comes to your mind is...traffic, buildings, ground-level ozone, blondes, beach, Hollywood...what else. Probably not anything related to open space and the conservation of it. No?
Palos Verdes. Green Sticks gringos! The Palos Verdes Peninsula. Made for running. Relatively, and exceptionally beautiful as an island of suburaban affluence and endangered coastal sage scrub. I moved here and immediately took a habit of running along the bluffs, up the hills, and through the 'hoods. Running, off-Peninsula, has been really important as well.
I can tell you just about how far it is from "here" to "there." That is less than 1 mile away. Don't believe me - trip your odometer. Newly-formed abilities. Pretty cool, huh? I can recite my top five favorite runs of the past year in order of importance (coolness or breakthroughs): San Francisco (Center>Golden Gate>Wharf>Center), PV Drives Loop (21 miles around the Hill), Mt. Tam (Mountain Theatre>Bon Tempe Lake>Fairfax>San Rafael), Portland (Brewery>Steel Bridge>Westside to the 'wood>back along the eastbank of the Willamette), and Pt. Vicente (my last nighttime out-and-back from Pedro). All these runs helped me to define myself as a runner. Either they were long, or they were brutal, or they were beautiful, or any one of those in-combination. I will spare the detail for later.
I have been/am inspired by folks like Ed Abbey, Terry Tempest Williams, Gary Snyder, Orion Magazine, Democracy Now!, Franz Kafka, the Dalai Lama, Martin Luther King Jr., James Kunstler, Sky Cries Mary, Dean Karnazes, Howard Zinn, John Zerzan and Runner's World to name a couple.
The following posts will lead the reader through the minglings of the runner's head as they wander through routes of sage, pavement, sand and whatever else happens in the way. It might serve as a guide, or as a distraction. Searching for a sense of place is an art. Placelessness not exist, but intentions get lost in the cultural rush. This is a depiction of not only a "natural" landscape, but a cultural one as well, on the move.
