100 Aspects of the run
This project is inspired by great Japanese artists such as Hokusai and Yoshitoshi. Be it Hokusai's 36 Views of Mount Fuji or Yoshitoshi's 100 Aspects of the Moon, their prints illustrate folk tales and real-life events that were well known to their audiences. In this project, I am taking a picture during 100 runs and writing a short essay about each picture. I hope you enjoy it. If you would like to engage in your own project, check out Chasing Twilight, the best running journal for runners to capture their thoughts on running or anything else. You can find the journal here: Order Now
-
Today was an early spring day. It was warm and sunny and waves of sand cranes passed overhead for about two hours. The sand crane migration always brings me joy. It signals that I have come through another winter and that better days are ahead. Their sound is like nothing else in the world and never fails to move me.I first heard their cries while I was inside and rushed outside to confirm that what I was hearing was sand cranes. I saw them almost immediately as they circled and wheeled over our block. I heard and saw them all during my 75-minute run, the most extended period I have ever seen them.The pictures below could show the sand cranes in more detail, but the birds were too high overhead and although my iPhone takes beautiful pictures, it just couldn't capture them in detail. And that is how I feel about these one-hundred essays. There is so much more I could have told you about, hundreds of pictures that I took but didn't include and of course, there are the sounds like today's sand cranes that I can't adequately capture.
The blurry sand cranes are an excellent metaphor for this project. While I tried to capture what I saw, felt, and thought during 100 consecutive runs, I could never fully capture it all. We are left with a sense of what I saw, felt, and thought, but only some things in full and sharp detail.
I hope you will draw some inspiration from this project and that you can capture your thoughts and share them with the world in whatever way suits you best. Thank you for being part of this journey and I will see you on the trails! -
One of my ongoing struggles is to be where my feet are. This refers to being in the moment, not the past or future. On a long run, if I start thinking about the end of the run, I unintentionally slow my pace as I anticipate finishing. Having gone from the present moment into the future, my pace suffers.In the picture below of a commuter train, I found myself wishing I was on the train going west into the night. Something about the idea of traveling on a train makes me wish I was on it, rolling on to the horizon. I had to remind myself that I had been on that train thousands of times and knew exactly what it was like, filled with tired commuters, some sleeping, some having loud telephone calls, some sadly eating their dinner and of course, most on their phones. And if I were on the train and saw a runner alongside the tracks, I would wish I was that runner. Telling myself to be where my feet were and that I was exactly where I wanted to be, I ran on into the night.
Are you interested in capturing your thoughts about a run? Check out Chasing Twilight, the best running journal for capturing your inner miles. You can find it at www.bestrunningjournal.com. -
I run for moments like the one captured in this photo with the sun behind a tree, the shadow of the bare limbs etched onto the weeping limestone path as the earth warms and the frozen ground thaws. The path winds further off into the woods and there are more miles to run and more beautiful things to see and experience.
Are you interested in capturing your thoughts about a run? Check out Chasing Twilight, the best running journal for capturing your inner miles. You can find it at www.bestrunningjournal.com. -
A run will bring wonder if I am open to seeing what the world has to offer. I experienced wonder today upon seeing children racing toy sailboats on Lake Michigan. It looked very fun.
I also experienced wonder, as in "I wonder why?" when I came across the Balbo Monument, a 2000-year-old Roman column donated by the fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, to Chicago as part of the 1934 World's Fair held in Chicago. In this era of tearing down politically incorrect statutes, I wonder why the city of Chicago retains a gift from a dictator that also involves looting a cultural antiquity.
And then there was the wonder of seeing Lake Michigan in a calm state, the waters reflecting the blue sky so that multiple shades of blue stretched out to the horizon. I never grow tired of seeing the lake like this; it always evokes a sense of wonder and awe.
Are you interested in capturing your thoughts about a run? Check out Chasing Twilight, the best running journal for capturing your inner miles. You can find it at www.bestrunningjournal.com. -
One aspect of a run is tuning into the earth's changes. Two months past Winter Solstice, the light has grown perceptibly brighter. Once muted and weak, it now says spring is coming. On a sunny day it is easy to believe spring is already here. Yet winter grinds on and it was on full display during my run. The more I ran, the more I became entranced with the interplay between the spring light and winter's cold and ice.Ice along the shoreline:
Waves break upon a deserted Oak Street Beach. Come July, finding space on the beach will be impossible,but today I had it to myself, sharing it only with debris from last week's storm.
Are you interested in capturing your thoughts about a run? Check out Chasing Twilight, the best running journal for capturing your inner miles. You can find it at www.bestrunningjournal.com. -
It was 34 degrees and raining when Michelle and I set out on our run today. Heavy rains were predicted in a couple of hours, so there was no choice but to run before the deluge arrived. Running through our village's downtown, we encountered an accident. A driver had driven into Kirschbaum’s, a much-beloved local bakery. The line of patrons often stretches out the door and down the street, so it was fortunate no one was hurt.
We ran on through town and into the woods. We saw no one, just three geese whose backs were beaded with raindrops that slid quickly off them and onto the ground. We stopped at the shelter so Michelle could see the caches I had found a few days ago (see #93 Caches). We poked around the back of the shelter and I thought about the driver who had crashed into Kirschbaum's and how stressful that must have been. I also thought about Kirschbaum's tea cookies and hoped the bakery would open soon. Then we turned back home while the east wind lashed our faces with rain.
Are you interested in capturing your thoughts about a run? Check out Chasing Twilight, the best running journal for capturing your inner miles. You can find it at www.bestrunningjournal.com.
-
A front began moving in during today’s run, bringing thin, hazy clouds that fell across the sky like a slow-moving curtain. As the curtain drew across the sun, it made a wonderful picture, like a child's drawing, simple and beautiful.It was the most beautiful thing I had seen on the run and I was grateful to have seen it.
Are you interested in capturing your thoughts about a run? Check out Chasing Twilight, the best running journal for capturing your inner miles. You can find it at www.bestrunningjournal.com. -
About 7.5 miles into my run, I ducked behind a shelter to pee.
Behind the shelter, I noticed what looked like a medicine vial. Poking it with my foot, I saw the label identifying it as an object used for geocaching. Geocaching is an activity where participants use GPS to find containers like the one in the picture. I hadn't seen a geocaching object before, and it was exciting to find this one.
Studying the area behind the shelter, I found a second cache in the hollow of a tree. In the hollow was a 3 wood golf club, a baking tray, a saw and a plastic bag containing folded-up, cardboard 6-pack holders.
What I found was someone's cache for making fires in the shelter. The golf club had been used to poke fires; presumably, the baking tray was used for cooking things in the shelter.