TITLE: Hill Climbing and Dead Ends AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford DATE: March 23, 2005 4:37 PM DESC: Running at dawn in the mountains, feeling your legs grow weary and your soul grow richer, will make you philosophical. ----- BODY: A couple of things that occurred to me while running through the low mountain desert north of Carefree, Arizona, this morning: A dead end isn't always a bad thing.
Sometimes, running to the dead end has its own benefits, even if only the joy of the running.
Running up big hills is worth the effort.
Of course, running up hills makes you stronger. It makes you stronger when running on level ground. It makes little hills seem like not so much. It teaches you that running up other big hills is doable.

Perhaps as important, though, is this: The view from the top of the hill can be stunning. You see the world differently up there.

Sometimes, you run to get from Point A to Point B, to accomplish a goal. Sometimes, you should just run. These are true about computer programming, too, and many other things. -----