Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Day 78 - Memories

Will Campbell joined Jennifer and I and crews (our parents) for dinner after stage 77. Will has been involved in the TRANSAMs since 1992 and is mentioned in Barry Lewis's book Running The Trans-America Footrace. It was great to talk to Will about past runs. Thanks Will!!!
Jennifer and I ran some more hills today, and we ran through some nice rural Maryland countryside. The good news is that today is the last day of hills. The route is flat the last 80 miles.
Well, 78 days of memories have been stored in that gray matter known as my brain with two more days of memories to be added. I don't have many talents, but I do have a fantastic visual memory. I can recall many images from the past 78 days. I replay the images in my mind in an effort not to lose those memories. Will I slowly lose the ability to recall the images? The likely answer to that question is yes. My ability to recall events and images from high school nearly 30 years ago is disappointingly limited.
Planning and running the Run Across America on Trail has been a great time in my life. One might say that I was called to run across the country and that I was simply fulfilling destiny by doing so. I will try to sum it up by saying that I am very fortunate to be able to do the Run - a challenge I have dreamed about undertaking since 2002 when I raptly followed the 2002 Run Across America via Alan Firth's daily race reports.
Bel Air to Chesapeake City, MD 39.43 miles
Jennifer 9:41:13
Mike     9:41:13

3 comments:

  1. The question is, after running across America, what next? Maybe running around the Great Lakes since you missed MI on this run.

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  2. Congratulations to Michael! Just one day to complete your goal.......

    We have enjoyed "joining" you on your trip.

    KY Friends

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  3. Actually, Mike, I wouldn't worry too much about "what's next." Too many advertising contracts, endorsement deals, and show-up monies to consider in the meantime. Neither would I worry about how much you're going to forget (like, um, during the rest of your life?). A friend of mine had the ridiculous theory that we are ALL all-knowing when we are born, and life is only a process of forgetting. Never mind that baloney. It's why we write stuff, like journey logs, so we can read later and recall damn near it all. So save this stuff! There'll be a quiz afterwards. Just hope and pray that the ISP server this is all stored on... doesn't crash. Machines *can* forget EVERYTHING!

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