April 29, 2015

10 Songs I Remember Listening To In the Moment


Most of these are live performances, so take some time and pull up on your big screen and really listen. Let me know which ones you like best!

1. Banco De Gaia - Desert Wind (Sunset Mix) – (Sitting in my car after finishing a long run to the top of Saddleback Mt.)

2. Robin Shulz - Prayer In C Radio Edit (during long run listening to Banco De Gaia radio. Song came on...what a cool beat!)

3. Chevelle – The Red (on my elliptical after blowing out my calf and trying to blast my family out of house and home)

4. System of a Down – Spiders (Driving home after my last long run with Larry R and Travis C before AC 100 in 2011)

5. New Order – Ceremony (driving home from work to a party at my house in Washington DC in 1988 while singing at the top of my lungs).

6. Foo Fighters – Everlong (The final miles of my second 50 mile race in 2007 that qualified me for WS 100).

7. Neil Young – Cowgirl in the Sand (laying on my back on a concrete bench at University California Irvine after working on my presentation to investors sometime in the mid 90s).

8. Radiohead – There There (Climbing Coyote Canyon during long run. Inspired me to write There There).

9. Kitten – Cut it Out (solo mile repeat workout at Orange Coast College track on a cloudy autumn weeknight in dimming light).

10. Doves – Kingdom of Rust (roaming the mountains of Colorado before and after the Leadville 100 in 2014).

April 18, 2015

Why I Love the Mountains


Mountains are magnetic, and we are drawn to them. Maybe it’s because of what they force us to do, or become. We gaze upon them, we exalt them, then we climb them. On their paths we face hardship, but these we welcome because hardship helps us discover things we didn’t know or understand before, about ourselves.

On their summit we feel inspired, because we see how far we have come, and how much we have endured to be there. In that moment, when we stand in the sky, everything we see is surreal and far away. But what we feel is raw, and we are present.   

To climb a mountain, we can’t just want it. We have to hunger for it. When we want to climb a mountain but don’t hunger for it, we are easily distracted. Every mountain is different, and each presents different hardships and opportunity to discover. We are drawn to certain mountains at different times, and we can't control which mountain we are hungry for. But we need to recognize when we are truly hungry, or only just wanting. 

I’m beginning to realize I’ve been climbing the same mountain for a long time, yet there is another mountain that beckons. One that will undoubtedly bring a new set of challenges, but one that makes me hungry again.

I think it is time for me to explore.