I turned 67 this year. When I was about 12, I first became interested in track, largely because of a kid my age who lived in my neighborhood, Artie Heineman. Artie’s passion was track and field, and he even had a genuine stop watch to back it up. We measured off the distance around our block and devised our own quarter, half and mile distances based on block-sized laps. We even built our own high jump pit, which in retrospect was pretty damn good. We spent hours and hours running and jumping.
Sadly, when I was about 14 Artie and his mom (a widow) moved away. But by that time the track bug had bitten me. In a true moment of serendipity, Floyd Strain moved into the area and started a track club (an amazing event in 1958!). Floyd was the real deal. He had actually been an alternate in the quarter mile for the U.S. Olympic team, and he was this beautiful, totally buff guy who came out in his Olympic gear and ran right along with us. It was exhilarating! (Floyd was one of the first coaches in the U.S. who used “interval training” and also one of the first to use film, albeit 8mm at that time).
It was inevitable that I would run track in high school. My race turned out to be the half-mile, even though I could run a pretty good quarter, and was able to grudgingly gut out a respectable mile when called upon. I was the first guy in the history of our high school to run a sub-two-minute half. In college, I got even better, eventually achieving a personal best of 1:52.2, a mark that would still win in a lot of junior college meets today - and remember that 880 yards is a bit farther than the 800 meters they run today!
The point of all of this is to let you know that I know what it feels like to run very fast, very far. In those days, I literally ran everywhere I could. I remember looking down at the ground as I ran and seeing it speed by in compressed form. But now, my running is slow and plodding, even though I am still in pretty good shape. I take a 3.5 mile run about 3 or 4 times a week now. When I run, I can’t help but think of what I once could do, and how it felt. But that is a conscious moment, and thus pretty limited.
No, the point of all this is my dreams! I guess a lot of guys my age might have sex dreams. I don’t. Instead, on a few lucky nights I am able to dream of EXACTLY how I felt when I could run far and fast, with the ground compressing under me for miles and miles. And the dream usually goes on and on, with lots of running in its script, and with me undoubtedly smiling in my sleep. It’s awesome and I love every second of it because it is absolutely real in that universe.
So you can see what is coming next. When I saw “Avatar” for the first time, and the paralyzed Jake Sully got to run for the first time in his alien body (so what if it was a bit of running amok) I knew exactly what he was feeling. He, even with his paralyzed body remaining in the pod, was getting to run again,resulting in moments of pure joy and freedom. Once in a while I get to do that too, in my dreams. I say: keep it coming as often as possible!
~ Tom
Monday, July 18, 2011
My own “Avatar” dream trip
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2 comments:
Beautiful post brother. Pure poetry. I wish I could still run at all. I'm finished pretty quickly, though I do walk either a treadmill or weather permitting (too hot and humid isn't great for my heart conditions) in our local park a couple of miles at least three times a week. But in my dreams I usually still have dark hair, the house I grew up in is usually involved and sometimes some of my long gone parents and/or siblings are still there (though sometimes the front of the house is in Manhattan or the backyard in China or Ireland etc.) or my cousins and aunts and uncles next door or down the street as when I was a kid, and yes they sometimes involve sex but more often just romance with either someone from my past or someone more recent. And I must say man, I almost never find anyone else's dreams very interesting, which is why I usually avoid writing about them myself, but this post is totally engaging and entertaining. thanks for it.
Nice post! I still remember my first mile run at age 40. Because of an asthmatic condition it took a month to work up to it. For about nine years I was reasonably competent, until I ran out of knees. Although, I can not run, I can spin and even ski bumps rather haltingly. I miss runing, but it is nice to be around.
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