The Great Outdoors

Am I the only person who dreams about running just about everywhere I go?

I was driving to Ohio a couple of days ago with my family, and along the interstate were all of these big copses of trees. Some of these mini-forests seemed pretty extensive. And while it was a prohibitive 13 degrees outside, I couldn't keep my mind from saying in a not-so-quiet way, "I wonder what it'd be like to run in there?"

I do that all the time. For example, on New Years Day (after the OSU Rose Bowl victory, of course—Go Bucks!) I watched the premier of the HGTV Dream Home. This year the home is just outside of Santa Fe, NM. It's a nice house, full of all sorts of lovely furnishings and comfortable seating areas, but all I could think about was the outside. With all of that desert-y scrub plus all of the craggy, lunar-surface-looking rocks, I thought it looked like a tremendous place to get in a few miles. In fact, during the show, there was one split-second glance of a guy running out there in that wilderness, and I thought, "That could be me." I've registered to win the house each day since the contest opened.

When I was on my cruise to the Bahamas in early December, we were unable to make our Sunday port of call because the water was too choppy, so we were stuck on board the ship. That whole day I could've kicked myself for not bringing my running gear (I was supposed to be "relaxing"). I just felt like a good few miles would've made the whole day a bit brighter.

When I fly over mountainous areas. When I drive past a great looking trail. When I see a magazine picture of an amazing sunset. All I think about is running there. I wonder how many miles I could get in. I wonder what I'd see. I wonder how lost I could get before I find my way out.

My next trip will take me to Portland, OR. I've never been to the Pacific Northwest, but I've seen pictures.

It looks like a great place to run.

Happy runnning.