Why I love Tecumseh

      Running Tecumseh Trail Marathon has become a much-looked forward to yearly event for me (except last year when I did it in January AND October). There are SO many reasons that I have taken to Tecumseh in some very spiritual ways and why I do it every year without fail. 
       In 2012 I was still a very fresh endurance runner. I had only just started running the year before and had been training for it with some of my best new friends. The long runs leading up to it, the prep work was some of the most fun times I had ever had. I got to make new friends in the process of training for my second marathon. 
   

      I remember a particularly great training run with my friend Melanie. It was fun. It was relaxed and friendly. We took lots of photos. Cute photos. The trails were lovely and the day was perfect. 
     The first time I ran it there were so many friends there I felt surrounded by love and affection. It was like a party. Friends, food and beautiful trails. What more could you ask for? The weather that day was absolutely gorgeous!! I kept running into friends along the way at exactly the moment I needed them. Chris Banal was waiting at the top of killer Indian hill taking photos with a big smile. At one point Maria and Rachel were there with oranges. Magic! Later on I ran into a small tribe of hashers (Rebecca and friends) who gave me a bit of beer and a big send off to the final miles. 
   And finishing was a triumph!! I felt like a superhero! I felt I could run forever on that beautiful day! (well no my legs felt like jello but my spirit was definitely up for more trail running. Go spirit go! I'll meet up with you later)
    Then after there was a fire, beer, food, more photos, just having fun being together. I never forgot any of it. 

That is why Tecumseh is my favorite race. It reminds me I am never alone...that there is love always around me...that my spirit is always sharing that love and I can keep my friends close even when they are not actually here. The trails keep me happy. My friends keep me sane. 

LET'S GO GET THOSE HILLS!!!!!!


 

When I Run: A poem

When I run I feel like I could run forever
         The world is sunlight and flowers---
a grand panorama of humanity and life.

When I run I feel like the ground beneath me
         disappears and my body is a machine.
There is nowhere else I want to be,
         My thoughts are not on things I've done wrong,
past mistakes, present worries, anxieties or how much I miss
        the people I have left behind or who have left me.
   

I am one with the sun and moon.
         I am part of the great book of life
and I can contribute a page.

When I run I am lost in my world
       The rest fades away like dew on grass,
I only feel the sun on my back, the wind in my face,
       the rain on my neck, the fierce cold, the soft snow,
the road, the trail, the hill up ahead.

When I run I am fully present
I am not in the past or future.
I am part and parcel of the wildness of life.
I am a body and mind as one----
     nothing I feel is borrowed. It is all me.

When I run I am not running away from things.
        I am running towards a better tomorrow----
full of promises, happiness and dreams.

I can fully believe in my heart--when I run---
    that things will finally work out,
that I am destined for more than I think,
    that the world is my own.


I am not only me. I am the child being tucked in at night safe. I am the hungry girl being fed. I am the woman laying her head down on a soft pillow at the end of a long day. I am a hot bath, a comfortable shoe, a long-awaited dinner with friends. I am comfortable and comforting. When I run I think of my family, my friends, the love I have given and give now, the love given to me and given now, my good fortune at having enough to live a good life, my freedom from addiction, from abuse, from being a stranger in a strange land.


These...all these things......happen when I run.

Heather Rose