Sole Searching: Be Cool

Sunday, June 8, 2014

Be Cool

Be cool. Elmore Leonard's characters often tell each other this. In fact, it's the title of one of his books. As I head into the summer season of running I've already been in a few situations where I had to remind myself to be cool. As is typical, I can sometimes get a little too wrapped up in competition and races but at its core running's importance to me isn't very complex. I think it's fun. There isn't a complicated explanation or deeper reason other than I think it's a hoot and I like the way it makes me feel. I recently raced a pretty stacked field at the TIMP Trail Marathon and had to be reminded to 'be cool'. Despite running fairly hard early on, there was a group of 5 guys just ahead that I couldn't catch. I crossed the line with some frustration. A week later, still in recovery mode, I had a disheartening training run that left me slightly more frustrated.

Enter my girlfriend Lyssa. There is a story she sometimes references that often reminds me not to take things so seriously. Where she grew up, folks didn't necessarily have access to the latest and greatest for skiing, but they had the love and passion. On any given weekend she would be surrounded by incredible skiers "shredding the pow" in their jeans and in old gear. It was about the enjoyment and simple act of moving down the hill.

Following Lyssa's advice that reminded me to "be cool", I have been filling my days with rad runs with good friends. This weekend became a celebration of that at a Ragnar Relay trail event just up the road at Snowmass, CO. Surrounded by good friends for 24 hours of relay running, I couldn't have been happier than to share in the simple act of running with good company. As we celebrated early in the morning after finishing, a guy in a pink dress from a team that hadn't yet finished yelled at us, "Think you guys are cool! Why don't you sissies try an ultra!"

"Did a guy in a dress just call us sissies?" I looked at my teammates. "That guy needs to 'be cool.'"