Running - some love it, others hate it. Why is running the largest participatory sport in the world? What have millions of folks uncovered that the rest of the population hasn’t? You have to run to find out and that means getting out the door... ah, the dreaded door and that painstaking first step. The first step is the best step; it’s where intent meets action. Intent without action is dead. Intent is a lot like talent in that way: If you take the sum of the two and add fifty cents you can buy yourself a bag of chips. (Intent + Talent + 50 cents = 50 cents) The smallest deed is better than the greatest intention; one step is greater than a thousand contemplated.

Anyway, if you prefer browsing the Internet to pounding the pavement and still want to know the secret millions have discovered, I’ll let you in on it. Many will call me liar but I know what I know and will share what I can share. That is, if you care to listen.

I’ll cut to the chase. There is magical Running Muse out there. Most can’t see her, touch her or hear her but she’s out there and once you meet her you’re never the same. I first met the Muse back in 1985; it was during a mile race in PE class. I was trying to beat my eleven-year-old sister’s 7:15 mile from the day before.

The race began like any other. There I was - all 53 pounds of mean, lean, ten year old soccer playing machine, tearing around the sandbox and soccer fields. Faster… faster… faster…  Head down, arms pumping, knees driving, and feet pounding. I neared halfway and the fatigue mounted - I’d gone out too fast, each step was like pushing on a cyanide filled syringe; the poison injecting and coursing through my veins. The poison pooled, my legs burned, and my head went numb. But when I passed the half something magical happened - I felt as if I’d been dipped in magic waters. The venom vacated my legs, the pain was gone, my stride opened and I began to fly - at least that’s how it felt. I was running faster than ever. I begin lapping the others, Billy, Jason, and even Mark - the other fast kid in class. Faster and faster I ran, motion without effort, speed without pain. I crossed the line in 6:05 - a new school record.

I didn’t know it then but that’s when I first met Terpsitrecho, the Running Muse.

Over the years Terpsitrecho and I have become quite close. I don’t meet her every day - just most. The best part is that I can see her now. She is beautiful, she floats just ahead along the trail, track, and road wanting to play a game of chase. I have to catch her before she works her magic, it’s how the game is played. Some days she is busy visiting the other guys I train with; they don’t believe in her, they call her “endorphins” or “a second wind” but I know better. Terpsitrecho finds this rather humorous but I can’t blame the fellas - they are like the ten year old version of me - they’ve never seen her. But just because they don’t believe in her, just because they don’t see her, doesn’t mean she doesn’t exist or that she won’t bestow her bountiful blessings.

When I took time off from running to tend to my cancer ridden father, the Muse would occasionally show up outside my window. One day I went outside to talk, she was silent, her smile was tired, she stared at the ground and shook her head.

“I do miss you,” I explained, “but some things are more important than running. Things like family, things like relationships, things like repairing a broken relationship with my dad.”

Terpsitrecho’s smile grew strong, and her voice found new life, “You are finally beginning to understand. I’m not here to take away from those things, I’m here to enhance them. Life is a gift, as am I. What we have is special, I will be here waiting for you when you’re ready to return.”

Well, I’ve returned and am recommitted to finding out just how fast Terpsitrecho and I can go. And between the trails in Mammoth Lakes and the roads of Southern California we’re going to get the job done. The Muse loves it at the beach and the mountains. She visits quite a few folks in Mammoth, on our run today I asked her why she checked up on me so many times.

“Because we’re friends,” she answered, “friends do that sort of thing. You know, I usually don’t meet people at their house or on their couch, I wait around the first corner.”

She waits around the first corner... I pondered that for a while. Getting to the corner is our responsibility.

That first step is rearing its ugly head again.

Then just this afternoon I came across something author Madeline L’Engle said, “Inspiration usually comes during work, rather than before it.” It looks like the writing Muse waits around the first corner too.  

To often we wait for the Muse, when all the while the Muse is waiting for us.

I asked Terpsitrecho why there is a sort of secret pessimism towards running and what she said astonished me. Apparently she comes from a family of Muses; she has nine older sisters - each working their inspirational magic in their own special way. Terpsitrecho was the tenth and her twin brother, Metriazo, the eleventh.

                  

                                                                                                         

Unlike his sisters, Metriazo hated inspiration and creativity, thus he hated and despised his sisters. He began sabotaging their efforts. This didn’t last long, as Zeus, their father, punished him, banishing him to the tower. But soon after Metriazo escaped. He stole a sack and an antique chest from his father and took the secret family potion from his mother Mnemosyne. He disappeared and went into hiding. The Good Muses went about their business but soon the Evil brother emerged unbridled and ran rampant. Poetry was stifled, dance suffered, song was suppressed and running was subjected to scorn.

According to Terpsitrecho, Metriazo started spreading lies, whispering things to people like, “Running is bad for your knees,” “You’re to busy to exercise,” “This is just the way you are, you can’t change,” “You need more rest,”  “You need more sleep,” “You need food - not exercise.”

She said Metriazo even managed to associate running with punishment; coaches and educators across the globe fell victim to his suggestions. You’re late - run a lap; you talk - run 2; tell your gym teacher his shorts are too tight - run 4. From a very early age, children were brainwashed - running wasn’t something to be enjoyed, running was punishment. Metriazo has been a busy brother.

Fast or slow, beginner or elite, Terpsitrecho waits around the first corner. The first step is up to us. Life is the sum of our choices, the first step is the best step. Don’t dream it, be it. The time is now; tomorrow is a lie.

Oh and by the way, getting out the front door isn’t so bad and that first step really isn’t all that painstaking - that’s just the whisper of Metriazo...

Thanks for stopping by, enjoy the site. Check back often, updates are coming, more video blogs are coming, fast times are coming, the phoenix will rise.

Godspeed,

--jc