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October 7, 2006
"Big Money, Big Money, No Whammies!"
Did anyone else ever watch this show? I can recall my brother and I as kids coming home from school, scrounging up an afternoon snack from the kitchen, watching episodes of "Press Your Luck" on TV, and procrastinating on our homework. In the living room, next to the black, tan, and grey plaid couch, was a low-lying end table-type thing (The table opened from the top and housed my parents' collection of 8 tracks.). My brother and I would slide it out into the middle of the living room floor. Then we'd grab 2 plastic bowls from the kitchen cupboards and place them upside down on the end table. He and I would sit side-by-side next to the end table and play along with the show's contestants. We'd watch the screen go around and around, then we'd hit the bowls and yell "stop" just as the contestants did. The two of us would banter back and forth about the prizes on the screen that we most wanted to win. Good times, good times.
So, anyways, let's fast forward 20 or so years. Ahem, where was I? I was going to use this show as an analogy before I got briefly stuck in the '80s. I'm going for big money and no whammies right now. I'm pressing my luck just a bit, but it's all a part of the game I'm playing.
May I introduce my lovely, tiny blog readership to Step 2 (You may or may not recall the elusive and evasive earlier blog entries that described Step 1 and some other secret plans.). It seems that I am surrounded by ultrarunners. It is as if they seep from the woodwork around me. You whisper the word "ultra" and they surround you like grizzly bears on an elk carcass. So, fine, I'll run my first ultra. Then I can fit in with all these people and appropriately talk shop while chilling in the coffee shop. Why not, right? This one is supposedly easy, a good one for first-time ultrarunners to do, a great opportunity to see what the ultraworld is all about. In all seriousness, I'm totally excited about this race.
Consequently, I'm in Week 2 of 3 big training weeks in my preparations for this race. In these 3 weeks, I'm spending at least 10 hours on trails/logging roads per week, doing 2 long runs (about 20 and 26 miles each), 2 workouts per week (1 hill workout and 1 "other" workout), and a crazy run or two (such as last week's Table Mountain climb, albeit short but hella steep).
It's a lot of work to take on while working a crazy full-time job (The Real Job) and the uberfun part-time job (my coaching gig, which resembles a full-time job in the number of committed hours). Despite all this, I'm having an absolute blast. I feel incredibly strong, rock solid, both mentally and physically. It all feels very good.
To tell the absolute truth, I struggled my way along with life in the spring and beginning of the summer. When my dad died, my world turned a bit gray. It was as if color was temporarily stripped from my world. Here and there, I would get snippets of shiny flashes and bright streaks across this grayscale world. I think my grayscale world was a survival mechanism: I needed to remove the extremes of everything, especially the emotional extremes, in order to keep on keepin' on. Grayscale was a safe place to be, for a while.
You just can't stay in that crap for too long, though. You start missing out on all the fabulous beauties of the world, people, places, experiences.To get myself out of that grayscale world, I needed to commit myself to something exciting, something important to me. Running and other outdoor explorations were the natural mechanisms to facilitate this process. That is how this step-by-step process that I continue to be somewhat elusive about first developed. Plus, my dad has always been a fond running supporter of mine, so it seemed natural to develop goals that he would have dug cheering me on through.
I guess I'm going for big money, then, on several levels. I'm training real hard right now, looking forward to the prize at the end of the game on October 28th. I'm also going for big money in the grand-scheme-of-life sense. This process has brought vivid color and beaming light streaming back into my life in just the way that I hoped it would, in just the way that I needed.
Posted by Meghan at October 7, 2006 12:50 AM
Comments
Absolutely. Think big. Committment. Perseverence. Beat the grayscale Meghan!!!
Posted by: Audrey at October 7, 2006 6:39 AM
oh, wow, great post! Beautiful writing. And yes, I did watch "Press Your Luck" as a kid and still find myself tossing out that phrase "Big Money, No Whammies" and wondering if anyone else has a clue what I'm talking about. "No Whammies" has such a nice ring to it. :)
Anyway, the new goal sounds awesome, we will be cheering for you and eager to hear about your training and the race! I'm inspired.
Posted by: anne at October 10, 2006 8:46 AM
It all connects, you realize. Whammies...Goblins? Not so different.
It sounds like an amazing place to run too.
http://www.xanfan.com/pressyourluck/whammies.htm
Posted by: chelle at October 10, 2006 2:01 PM
I'm so excited for you Meghan. And I can't wait to follow along in your new adventure!! I haven't felt the pain of losing a parent but I have felt other pain and I know what has always helped me the most is pouring all the passion I have stored up inside into something new and exciting. I've not met you but I can sense your spirit. And I can sense it's an amazing, amazing spirit. Good luck!
Posted by: Beth at October 10, 2006 6:54 PM