Last Updated on November 14, 2011 by James Dziezynski
The Linden Traihead route for Mount Sanitas, our standard run.
Time: 1:06:53
Distance: 4.33 Miles
Elevation Gain: 1,722 Feet
Fremont’s Good Citizen Grade: A+
Today’s Play List: Rush – 5 The Run (Mostly Snakes & Arrows Live)
Today is day one of the “5 Day Sanitas Challenge”, a little quest for Fremont and me to run, er jog, to the top of our favorite 6,863 ft. training mountain here in Boulder. Running Sanitas is nothing new for us, we do it 2 -3 times a week year round when we’re in town. It’s good exercise, tires Fremont out a little and lets me settle down all the things rattling in my head for an hour or so.
On the really good days I tend to actually not think about anything at all and let the music in my headphones take over. The downside of zoning out is that I do occasionally run right by friends without so much as a nod or a wave, but please don’t take it personally — I’m trying to get through the run! I’m not a passionate runner nor am I looking to crush my personal best times, whatever those are. I’m out there to get the legs, lungs and heart working and do so in the company of my border collie Fremont.
Now Fremont… he has his good and bad days. Thankfully, he has good outings more than 90% of the time. I think he has times where he’s moody, frustrated and has some pent up energy that manifests itself in an errant bark at a fellow hiker (usually ones that are dressed like they just came out of a Curious George book). He’d never bite anyone but his bark has gotten a little scary for some people. To keep track of his good citizenship, he gets a grade on how well he behaves. Most days, he gets an easy A. The days he gets less than an A are when he senses my stress and feeds off it a little. Today all was well and he got an A+ for being especially friendly to dogs and people on the trail.
As for jogging up Sanitas, it hasn’t come easy to me. It took a few months (way back in 2001) for me to actually be able to jog to the top non-stop and I still believe I can probably hike up faster. By no means am I a natural runner so when I was finally able to make it to the summit without stopping, I made a point to run the mountain on a regular basis as not to lose the fitness/mental edge needed. The degree I suffer is mostly generated in my own head; there are days when jogging the less strenuous valley trail, a moderately inclined path that skirts the footprint of the mountain, is a miserable experience that can’t be over quick enough.
Geddy and the boys of Rush have been with me on hundreds of runs up Sanitas.
And then there are days like today, when the weather is sunny and cool, Fremont is a perfect gentleman and my legs cruise on autopilot all the way up. Good music is a big help and today’s fare was my collection of Rush live tracks and a few studio recordings that keep me moving. My mind was peacefully zoning/zenning out for the bulk of the run but one particular lyric from the song We Hold On caught my attention as I rolled down the northeast descent trail:
How many times
Do we chaff against the repetition
Straining against the faith
Measured out in coffee breaks
How many times
Do we swallow our ambition
Long to give up the same old way
Find another road to take
I’ve always been a little worried about measuring my life in coffee breaks. If there’s anything I’ve learned about myself in 35 years on this wonderful planet, I don’t thrive well in a Dilbert-esque setting of cubicles and ID badges. With all the life events that have transpired in the past 13 years in Boulder, most of the lows are tallied as inevitable circumstances and in time, I move on. However, the dull and tedious fetters of the comfortable, ergonomically sound cubicle seem especially corrosive to whatever it is in me that ignites my passions. The enervation from an 8 hour office day is supremely draining, moreso than a tough 10 hour day in the mountains or a particularly bland drive stuck in ski traffic. I can easily recall the mental fatigue and ennui from my days at NetLibrary, where I did an fine job editing books but did so with the joyless precision of a meter maid.
"A Bad Day Fishing is Better Than a Good Day in the Office" - just one in the line of trucker's hats with filthy sayings. This one is a little more tame.
More recently, my tenure at Natural Habitat Adventures came to an end, largely in part because the company had evolved in my four years on staff from a fun, grassroots, local company to a corporate brand, under the thumb of the largely proficient business leadership of Gaiam Inc. Now don’t get me wrong, that’s the way businesses progress and at some point little business become big money and things change. I’m living proof that even the best office job in the world… is still an office job. (
Bland is the base ingredient for apathy and baked at the appropriate temperature, resentment. I know somewhere in my Einstein-ian brain that we truly do create our own realities, built up of all the energy and ambitions we harvest. I do think there is some peril in remaining an idealist into adulthood without a firm understanding of the realities of responsibility to yourself and others. I agree that we all have to give back to the bigger society, whether that comes in the form of writing books, welding car frames, delivering mail, you name it. As much as the hedonistic bliss of playing in the mountains and exploring the immense natural world is endlessly satisfying, there’s a lot of things that have to line up to actually be able to pull it off for any amount of time in good style.
So back to my buddies, Rush and of course, Sanitas. We Hold On is a great song to run to and a good anthem for me at this time in my life. “How many times do we wonder if it’s even worth it? There’s got to be some better way to get me through the day.” Getting out on Sanitas with my dog, that’s a better way for sure.
When I get out early, I have accomplished two major things before 9 AM: wake up my mind and body and hopefully get Fremont enough border collie action so that he can just chill while I work from my home office (a *much* better office than cubicle land). So today was not a run of profound thoughts, which is actually good because it means I was light on my feet and the music was good. I’ll gladly take an hour of mental dormancy when I can get it.
Oh and a quick apology to my good friend Marie and her border collie mix Ella. On yesterday’s pre-5 Day Challenge Sanitas jog, I zipped right by them without saying hello. Sorry Marie, I must have been locked in. Next time you have full permission to trip me or bonk a reasonably sized rock off my head to get my attention. I blame Geddy, Alex and Neil and those sweet, sweet Rush riffs.
