I’ve had a lot of adventures running, and many more to come. Close to home, far flung, big cities, little towns, they run the gamut. But the one adventure I wanted to mention is one I just nailed down yesterday,
In the first week of May I’m doing a couple of races with Mainly Marathons as part of their Independence Series. Sure, sure. I look forward to seeing those folks and re-joining the gypsy summer camp of running. We’ll caravan from small town to small town in various adjoining states over the course of the week to run a marathon a day. But what I’m even more excited about is that I just confirmed my brother is going to be in the Philly area that week and I’ll get to hang out with him during the downtime between races.
Steve is the smartest guy I’ve ever known and it’ll be great to catch up with him face-to-face. Due to various issues and that pesky space-time continuum, we kept missing each other the past few weeks. I saw him briefly a few weeks back and it was great to just spend some time with my brother. We’ll talk movies, dinner club, life, a little music (Steve’s WAY more knowledgeable on the music scene; I’m still trying to figure out how to get Huey Lewis tickets before the end of the year). It’ll be great to just be in the same state together for a bit.
I’m also going to use the time to try and nail down a running event we can go do together. Maybe Mom, me, and Steve all hitting the road for an adventure. He said he thought he could look at training up and doing something in the 1st quarter of 2017 so I’m eyeing a few possibilities. The easiest would be for him to come down to Florida and run part (or all!) of the Dopey Challenge at Walt Disney World. But part of me would love to see if he’d be up for a Tokyo Marathon adventure in late February 2017.
I ran Tokyo in 2008 and will one day write up a proper summary with photos and a few more stories — the Tokyo shirt is on my quilt that I use as a jumping off point for those posts. But the short preview “origin story” of my running that race is that Steve and I were going to do that race together. Steve you see speaks Japanese and was an exchange student for a time in the land of the rising sun. I can’t recall if it was a lottery then or not to get into Tokyo. This was before it was a “world major” so I feel like if you were a foreigner and registered early enough you just got in. But for some reason or another I got in and Steve couldn’t do it in the end. So I wound up being truly a stranger in a strange land navigating the streets of Tokyo. I was without my translator and was without my wing man, my brother. I had a fun time to be sure (it’s hard not to in Tokyo to be honest — and the sushi! Tsukiji Market still haunts my dreams!). But I’m sure I’d have more fun with Steve. He’s great.
Plus, I’d love to get Mom to come with us — my goal for her is to see all of the Disney theme parks in the world and grab a photo with her in front of each Castle. I’ve never been to Tokyo Disneyland and even though it’s the only Disney Park that isn’t wholly owned directly by the Walt Disney Company, it still has all the amenities and character… and a castle.
Of course, I’m also tempted to try and get Steve to do the Mount Fuji Marathon instead. The problem with that race is that it’s held around Thanksgiving. Not to go all Luke Skywalker on you, but that’s a whole nother year! Far too long to wait for an adventure.
This is all rambling conjecture over what new adventures may await. The calendar is quickly filling up but I find I’m like a wannabe rolling stone — gathering no moss, sure, but also a bit boozy, hard living, aspiring to still be on the road 50+ years later. There’s worst goals to have.