History in the Making

The city of Sacramento, capital of California, was founded in 1839 by a Swiss-American named John Sutter. While not originally the capital of California, in it's early days it had become the central hub to those seeking fortune and fame during the gold rush. It was at Sutter's mill just 25 miles away, they first discovered the shiny substance, a historical event that created a serious frenzy and a city with an extremely rich history.

As people migrated to the area from all over the world, Sacramento soon became a very culturally and economically diverse place. Full of the hopes and dreams of a determined and ballsy group of people. People who left their homes, uprooted families, braved a brutal landscape, attacks from wild animals and some very desperate men. All to find what I'm sure to them, was a sort of happiness they felt wasn't possible where they were. A hardy lot determined to change their lives and make a better future for those they loved.

As the city became more established, a series of neighborhoods grew into prominence. Each area was centered around a park that was built for the people that lived in that particular plat. Each park was usually named for a prominent figure responsible in some way for the city's growth. One of which I recently moved to called William Land Park.

Probably the largest of the 3 or 4 most well known parks in a city that now stretches in all directions for nearly 30 rolling miles. This hidden gem at the center of one of the more upscale and well know neighborhoods, boasts 3 square miles of grass, trees and trails. It also contains a nine hole golf course, an amusement park, children's theme park and of course a zoo. Like the city it strives to entertain, Land Park is a place steeped in history and the site of many wonderful events that have happened over the years, including what happened to me this morning.

Now...what happened at that park, in the brisk morning air at 5 a.m., won't go down in anybodies history books. It will never be written about in the paper, or make the national and local news stations either. In fact, no one even saw it happen except a few skiddish squirrels and a very vocal duck with an attitude problem. Hell! I wasn't even sure it was gonna happen at all, based on the bottle of wine I had downed just 6 hours before and a late night movie that found me passed out within the first 10 minutes of previews and opening credits.

It all started when my alarm sounded and my eyes actually opened. Surprisingly, my body and my brain cooperated in getting my ass up and out of bed with little issue. I was fairly alert for it being such an ungodly hour and I got to the task of getting dressed to sweat. began to fumble through all the boxes from our recent move, that still housed our clothes. Admittedly as I began to excavate my running gear from their ridged depths, there was a part of me that secretly hoped I wouldn't be able to find anything to wear so I could just give up and crawl back to bed. No dice. I found it all and in the dark no less. So with no excuse now, I strapped it all on and began the quarter mile walk to the park.

As I walked I began to stretch by swinging my arms and twisting my upper body. With the sky still black and me dressed in all black, the movements I was making must have made me look like a health crazed Ninja. I am sure I would have looked ridiculous had anybody been around to see it but nobody was. All the streets were dark except for the random street light on each corner. My neighbors securely tucked away in their fluffy warm beds and million dollar domiciles.

I reached the park and immediately hit the trail running. A trail made of decomposed Granite and city streets that stretches around the two mile perimeter of the park and a mile or so of the surrounding neighborhood. A wonderful route to run and I was grateful to have it passing under my feet. Between the move and life in general getting in the way, it had been a while since I did this. It was long over due. The thudding noise of my foot fall soon became a prominent sound in my head as I focused on the task at hand. My only goal was to run the length of the first leg of the trail, walk for a little bit then run again and so on until I had conquered the entire three mile circuit. And yes, for those of you who run and are doing the math, that is a 5k.

I decided not to use my iPod this time around to see if it would make a difference in my results. It was hard not having music to distract my brain from what my body was trying to do. But between the thoughts in my head and the pounding noise from the trail under my willing feet, I managed to find my rhythm and before I knew it I had reached the place I had intended to stop and walk for a bit. Oddly enough though, my brain let my body keep going.

As I continued down the path, I started to listen to what my body was saying to my brain. I slowed my gate a bit to help reserve some energy and swung my arms harder to help propel me forward with a little more ease. With almost a mile behind me, I was still feeling pretty good. My plan to stop and rest seemed a little premature, and so with the next milestone in site I just kept going. I figured I would stop to walk at the next marker.

My heart rate was definitely increasing and my breathing seemed to become more labored. I realized that I had started to pick up my pace a little too much and was over exerting my vascular functions. The want to get to that next milestone so I could rest, made me quicken my pace to try and hurry to it's restful bliss. It was at this point that I listened to my body again and slowed the pace. After all this wasn't a race. I was in it for distance not speed. I had already surpassed my previous goal, why not try to surpass this one?

With my pace slower and the second mile stone squarely in view, my lungs seemed to ease up and my brain told my body to keep going. I figured I would just go until I couldn't anymore, then I would rest. By this point I had already gone over a mile and a half, and by focusing on the distance and not how fast I was gonna be done with this insanity, I was able to make the run more bearable. It was at this point I had a major revelation that came to me in the form of a quote I had read by the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. "The essential thing in 'heaven and earth' is that there should be a long obedience in the same direction; there results, and has always resulted in the long run, something which has made life worth living."

This statement ran through my head as my heart pounded in my chest and my feet pounded the path. By this point I had run over two miles straight without stopping. Something I had never done before in my life! I didn't get this far by trying to get to the end quicker. I got this far by pacing my self and preventing my body from quitting before the end of the journey.

So many other times before when I had tried to lose weight, I wanted to get to the end quickly. I did this by becoming militant and over the top in my methods of shedding the pounds. To me it was more about the weight than it was about changing my life and my habits. As a result I would lose the weight but in the end became burnt out. Sure my body had changed, but my mind still thought like the unhealthy slob I was when I started. Rather than a long obedience to changing my lifestyle, I pushed harder than I was mentally able and forgot the whole goddamned reason for doing it in the first place. My health.

With that thought now in the forefront of my mind, I steadied my pace and kept on running in the same direction. Never wavering and consistently pushing as hard as I needed to. Never more than my body could handle never less than I was capable of achieving. Before I knew it, I had gone the distance and finished the three miles having never stopped to walk. Sure I had slowed my pace a few times, but I NEVER stopped running.

So I had made history in this city drenched in it. Granted it was my own and had absolutely had no bearing on the sleepy world surrounding my proving ground known as Land Park. But the very real and historical fact was that I had gone the distance. I finished a 5k without stopping, before my neighbors even got out of bed.