The end of one adventure is always the start of the next

Year Running Streak:

-Length to date - 386

-Mileage - 2,000+ miles but who really knows or cares

- Average run time between 45 minutes - 1 1/2 hrs.

The end is always the beginning, sounds like something a prophet would say and probably if I looked long enough I would find that some great person has made that comment before. Last week I finally finished my personal challenge of running every day for a year. This started out as training for a mountaineering trip that never happened due to lack of funds. After that huge dissappointment I kept running with just novel thoughts of running every day for a year. No real intentions of doing it, always thought something would happen to break the streak.

My favorite pasttime is cycling and after a few months I found that running was so much different than cycling. It was easier to let my mind go while I was running to a level I just couldn't accomplish on the bike. Not sure if it was cycling takes more concentration or if it was the fact that at that time cycling brought up some bad memories and experiences I had during my "war" years in retail. When things started looking dire at my last job, I found that running was my way of thinking my way out of the problem. What was I going to do to be proactive and create positive change and not wait around to be a victim once more to bad management? Almost every aspect of my business plan is a product of running around Downtown Macon. Going out hitting the streets, seeing the people and the sights, learning, and in general taking a deep breath of a city I really do love.

Love for Macon, especially if it's not your hometown, is an aquired feeling. Like many folks, I worked here long before I lived here. I would come to Macon do my job, take my check, and make a b line back home. After awhile all that time in the car seemed like time I was wasting, so I moved to Macon to save time and money. Thats when I turned into a suitcase resident. I would work all week and then find something to do somewhere out of town on the weekend. Then I transformed into the typcial Maconite, " I hate Macon, there's never anything to do, it's unsafe and dirty". The problem with that is the only thing I did in Macon was sit around and complain about it. Sure I would ride my bike but I made every effort to not involve myself in the community, I would drive 2+ hours away to do things that were available here. An old friend of mine and I were sitting around one night, complaining about Macon of course, when I finally said "you know what, the only way I have a right to complain is if I get out and do as much as possible to support it!", in essence earn my right to have an opinion.

So here I am a year of running in the books, a year of running and thinking day after day for at least 45 minutes about downtown and my business downtown. I have had revelations about the good and the bad but keep finding myself dwelling on the positive. I really believe that I am becoming part of the fabric of my neighborhood. Each day I am my own prophet, looking for the positive light, hunting down the silver lining, blocking out and exterminating the assholes that feed off of downtown and bring nothing to the table to truly change it. So I challenge you to go out and find something you can do that helps you find value in your community and if you don't see that value look at yourself. It's real easy to grab political talk show catch phrases and use them to attack the place you call home but that turns you into the problem. Be your own solution to the problems you see in your life. Take control, find a goal, and most importantly let go of the negative things that are holding you back from living.

Be Happy, Healthy, and most importantly proactive.

R