Running and Not-Running

Since January 8th I've been training for the Marrakech half marathon (13.1 miles) on the 31st of this month. Due to the close proximity of the race, the trick has been to increase mental and physical endurance to an adequate level within the time frame without injuring myself. So far, so good. Occasionally I am accompanied by my friend Abderrahim, heading out on the long, flat road west of town toward a neighboring village. Early in the morning, running alongside the groves of olive trees and open fields, the air is cool and clean. On the return trip we run facing the mountains as the sun peeks out from behind the long range of snowy summits.

Today was the longest I'd gone yet- eight miles round trip, and I felt like I could have turned around and done it again. Luckily the part of me that desires to maintain functioning lower limbs intervened, though before long I will be making that return trip as, bit by bit, I add the miles.

It's funny how you start to think about it: "Ok, well today I ran eight miles, so if I just double that and then add ten more, I'm already at full marathon distance!!"

I've been thinking a lot about distance. And time-- how malleable it is, how we can adapt to great quantities of it. The time required for PC service and the recent running have had me considering how such blocks of time change-- that the time or distance can always be related to a greater or smaller quantity, and thus can quickly expand or shrink in one's perception. I find myself often thinking of the twenty seven months spent here in relation to the span of an average lifetime or full scope of potential experiences, so as to reduce it into something more mentally manageable. The remaining ten and a half months can seem like such a vast stretch, though one can simply step back and perceive it as almost nothing-- a mere blink. Depends on how you look at it. Completing a time or distance seems more feasible as one successfully endures more and more of it-- those great lengths become easier to conquer as your mentality adapts, and one can continue to push the boundaries. Interesting also how perhaps the amount of personal growth and development within this PC experience is, due to the nature of the circumstances and environment, much more so than what would "normally" unfold, though I suppose that's heavily dependent upon one's attitude. Here I think back to my life before Peace Corps. I can't say that's something I'd care to return to (family, friends, and the beautiful Midwest excluded, of course!), though everything has led me to here, and for that I can't help but appreciate all of it.

Is this getting too sappy?

me, warming up at dawn