E-ticket to ride

Gather round young whippersnappers. In the old days, Disney theme parks used to sell paper tickets for rides throughout the Magic Kingdom.  When I was eleven years old, I remember my parents buying a pack for each of us, with tickets marked A through E. The E-tickets were for something really awesome like Space Mountain.…

FIght, FLight or FRight

I learned this in 6th grade science class. When an animal in the wild is face to face with a predator about to eat him, one of two instincts will take over – fight or flight.  The animal will stand and fight, or take flight and escape (by running, flying, swimming, whatever.) Even curling up into…

Chase or be chased

I play mind games to motivate myself on long runs.  Coach Jeff Galloway encourages this practice to keep your right brain engaged and your left brain from talking you out of reaching your goal. When you hit mile 18 in a marathon, it can become all out war between the hemispheres. One of my favorite…

16 steps

There are 16 steps on the staircase to the second floor of our house. I was just walking up to my home office when I stopped. The concept of turning 50 suddenly hit me and I was glad I was holding the handrail. I looked down at my feet and the steps leading back to…

Missed your calling?

How many times have you heard “You missed your calling!” from a friend or co-worker?  It usually comes right after they see you do something extraordinary that has nothing to do with your day job… like when you exhibit some long dormant talent that rarely gets dusted off and used in public.  I think it…

All together now

So now I’ve run two marathons and I’m a proud two-timer. I ran the relatively mild Sacramento CIM in December and the not-so-mild hill-climbing adventure in San Francisco today.  While it’s fresh in my mind, I’d like to share the top 10 highlights of the race for me: I met Marshall Ulrich at the runners’…

What connects us all

In a recent post I wrote: “Your best friends will find you accidentally, and stay with you intentionally.”  Let’s explore that a little more.  The definition of the word “friend” has been stretched by social media, to the point that it even functions as a verb.  The term “best friend” sounds more personal and implies…