Bloomsday, Brecon Beacons, Savannah, Smoky Mountains, Pine Grove Furnace S.P., Utica
Bloomsday, Brecon Beacons, Savannah, Smoky Mountains, Pine Grove Furnace S.P., Utica
Races you'll love running + some great running reads
Good Sunday morning, my friends! ☀️
As I write to you, it’s a sunny and cold Saturday afternoon here in Augusta, Ga., where I’m visiting family. I’m hopeful each of you has someplace warm and safe to be, especially if you’re on the East Coast, where I’m seeing some incredible reports of snowfall on the news.
Even though it’s been pretty frigid here, I was able to get outside and go for a run along the Augusta Towpath Canal this morning — with temperatures in the high 30s, but also clear, sunny skies the whole time. It’s nice not only because it’s home — I grew up in Augusta — but also because it injects a bit of novelty into my running routine, something I’ve discovered I’ve been needing.
If you remember last week’s discussion, lately I’ve been reading in glances a book I adore, Vybarr Cregan-Reid’s Footnotes: How Running Makes Us Human. I’m not reading it in a linear way; I’m jumping in and out of sections of the book, reading chapters out of order, just foraging for things that strike me as interesting.
What I stumbled upon today after I came home from my run was a chapter on how much we need to be out in natural environments when we play — when we’re children, for certain, but also when we’re adults, because we need play at this time in our lives too.
In the book’s third chapter, titled “What’s Running Through Your Mind? Running, Neuroscience and Environmental Psychology,” Cregan-Reid tells of a visit to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where he meets with a pair of scientists who work in environmental psychology.
In their conversations, they turn to the subject of attention — how we stay focused, and what happens when we don’t. This is something I’ve always kicked myself for, because my attention is like a butterfly. It flits and flies wherever it wants to go. I’ve thought of this as a fault, but the scientists Cregan-Reid spoke with say there’s an evolutionary reason for it.
“So I ask Avik [one of the scientists], ‘What is attention?’
It’s like concentration, he explains. ‘You can use a muscle analogy. You work it, it gets tired, it depletes at different speeds depending on the task. Directed attention is not something that you can use indefinitely without any cost. While it’s questionable that directed attention can be strengthened like a muscle, the analogy holds that, like a muscle, if it’s tired the best way to restore it is to let it rest.”
He goes on to explain that our ability to hold our concentration is certainly an asset, but one that can harm us if we do it for too long. (Like most things, there’s a reason we evolved with brains that can’t stay focused for too long; if we didn’t need to constantly seek out new information from our environment, we’d never have developed the ability to survive.)
“The only way to do that is to tap into our basic human desires,” the scientists told Cregan-Reid, adding that, after millions of years of evolution, our brains are wired to “want to understand things, extend our mental models, avoid confusion, and avoid boredom.”
“Our brains evolved in an environment where meandering distraction wasn’t a bad thing. Fascination with a task or activity is helpful for getting things done, but if you become fascinated for too long, it may prevent you from knowing or exploring the environment. Our abilities to momentarily tune out save us from all manner of mishaps and dangers: everything from the over-involved reader returning to a good book while their bath overflows in the next room, to the tribesman who is so involved in whittling his spear that he fails to hear the approaching leopard…
Moments of ambient distraction are good; they are natural; they are healthy. Those moments, as well as allowing us to pull the plug just in time, also permit us to rest the depletable muscle of our concentration. That rest is not a weakness. It is desirable, necessary and rewarding.”
I’m fascinated with this way of looking at how our minds work because, as I mentioned above, I can have quite a scattered mind sometimes. It turns out that running, especially when we do it outside in the natural world, gives us opportunities like the ones Cregan-Reid describes, to relax our concentration and take in all the stimuli that surround us when we’re outside.
Relaxing our concentration isn’t just a break from focusing; it’s restorative. Our brains need to be able to alternate between periods of focus and periods when we’re distracted and bounce around from flower to flower. They need to decompress and tune out. And running, especially outside in a new environment — or one that’s new to us — offers the perfect way to do that.
I know that’s not easy for all of us right now — especially if you live in the Northeastern U.S.! — but soon enough, we’ll all be able to experience it again, as spring will come soon.
I hope you’ve had a wonderful weekend, and are staying safe and warm. Stay in touch and let me know how your running has been.
Your friend,
— Terrell
Races you might love running
Gateway to the Smokies Half Marathon
Waynesville, N.C. | Saturday, April 2, 2022
If you’ve ever traveled to western North Carolina near Asheville, you know what you’ll encounter there — lush, green, tree-covered mountains as far as the eye can see, just beyond the wilderness areas of Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the Pisgah National Forest, the former of which is the most visited national park in America. The course “takes your breath away,” thanks to its stunning spring scenery, organizers say, with a mix of stretches through residential areas, downtown Waynesville’s city streets, and long stretches out on the rolling mountain roads here in the Smoky Mountains, where you can drive to Asheville after the race in less than half an hour.
$70 and up | Sign up here
Buck Ridge Burn Half Marathon
Gardners, Pa. | Sunday, April 3, 2022
“What better way to shake out those winter legs than to leap over logs and splash through April creeks?” That’s how the organizers describe this challenging run through southern Pennsylvania’s Michaux State Forest, where you’ll run the trails within Pine Grove Furnace State Park, home to two lakes, lots of hills and a portion of the Appalachian Trail. The half marathon will cover plenty of trails through the woods and cross several streams, and the trails may be covered with rocks, mud, tree roots and limbs, and/or anything else nature throws on their path. The course has a 4-hour time limit, they add: “Come play in the woods with us and feed your soul!”
$50 and up | Sign up here
Publix Savannah Women’s Half
Savannah, Ga. | Saturday, April 2, 2022
On this springtime run through Savannah’s downtown historic district, along streets shaded by ancient live oak trees draped in Spanish moss, you’ll make your way past several of its historic squares laid out when the city was designed on a grid back in 1733. The early going takes you through Savannah’s historic district, where scenes from the movie Forrest Gump were filmed, while the second half of the race features a run inside Daffin Park, whose 80 acres are home to Grayson Stadium, the home of minor league baseball’s Savannah Bananas. You’ll finish at the city’s Forsyth Park in front of its famous fountain.
$80 and up | Sign up here
Lilac Bloomsday Run
Spokane, Wash. | Sunday, May 1, 2022
Nestled along the Spokane River, just over 90 miles south of the U.S.-Canada border, this city of just over 200,000 has seen more than 50,000 runners in some years take to its streets for this annual rite of spring. A 12K race that’s one of the largest of its kind anywhere in the country, its name was chosen by founder Don Kardong, who was inspired by the James Joyce novel Ulysses. In the novel, Leopold Bloom wanders the streets of Dublin, Ireland, in much the same way as the legendary Greek king Ulysses wandered the world and then returned home to Ithaca. Scholars and fans of Joyce named the day of Bloom’s fictional journey through the city “Bloomsday,” and it’s been celebrated ever since. And because Spokane’s motto is “the Lilac City,” Kardong put the two together to create a race that will make its 46th running this spring.
$28 and up | Sign up here