Episode 5-495 – Maddi and some trail magic

Hello my running friends.

Hello my running friends.  It’s only been a couple weeks but it feels like a lifetime.

When we last spoke I was on top of all my training and fitness goals for this cycle.

And then the universe stepped in and rebalanced the karma for me by breaking my collarbone.

I’ll tell you all about that in Section two today.

In section one we’ll talk about some more running advice I have been dispensing.

And today’s interview is with Maddi who is a self-described trail bum who just stepped off the Appalachian Trail.

I saw her post in Instagram and asked if I could talk to her about her experience.

Why?  Why am I fascinated with these lost souls that wander the wastelands?

First, I think we all harbor this fantasy of walking away from our day-to-day lives and disappearing into the woods.  We have a long history of idolizing this.  All the way back to our local friend Thoreau at Walden.  Or more recently in blockbusters like Eat Pray Love (which I am currently listening to on audio).

We have been trained by society to stay in our lanes, cower in our cubicles and show up for work every day freshly washed and ready to be plugged into the cogwheel of industrial existence.

But there are those few among us who say ‘NO!’ – They step off the track.  They let the other rats go.  And they walk into the woods.

I know I have always harbored that fantasy.

And secondly, (I bet with all the flowery prose you forgot I even had a list.) Second! I want to know how it changed them.  How this decision colors their lives and existence.  Is there something there that existentially cleanses the wanderer’s soul.

So I had a chat with Maddi.  I think she might have still been in the dazed post-trail state and I didn’t do a great job connecting with her, but I didn’t over edit the interview to make it more productized, because I think that’s real.  I think she is processing her journey and, like all of us, trying to fit the puzzle pieces of life together in some semblance of order and purpose.

Because, my friends, at the end of the day, we are not in search of answers.  We are in search of conversations.  And through these conversations we get whispers of the divine.

On with the show.

Section One – Top Three Runner Questions:

https://runrunlive.com/top-three-runner-questions

 

Maddi

Maddi Plant

 

A nomadic ski bum turned hiker trash! Maddi or DeepEnd on trail completed the Continental Divide Trail last summer and is setting out this summer to complete the Appalachian Trail!

 

https://thetrek.co/author/maddi-plant/

 

Section Two – How I broke my clavicle

https://runrunlive.com/the-crusty-crunchy-clavicle

Outro

Alrighty my friends you have successfully shoulder rolled your way to the end of episode 5-495 – good for you.  Well done.

What’s on the schedule for me?  Well, Like I said I’m working on finishing up my first apocalypse novel, I’m also publishing season 5 of that other podcast over at “After the Apocalypse”.

I signed up for a Thanksgiving 5K, I may also run my club’s trail race if the doctor’s give me the green light.  Or not.  I have lots of time and plenty of projects.

Should I be more angry about my plans being wrenched uncomfortably away?  I don’t think so.  It’s all good.  None of us know how much time we have, so don’t waste it worrying about ‘what might have been’.

All we have is now.

Make the best use of it.

And I’ll see you out there.