TITLE: I Missed a Major Anniversary And Almost Didn't Notice
AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford
DATE: December 09, 2020 11:22 AM
DESC: 
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BODY:
 Yesterday, I
<a href="http://www.cs.uni.edu/~wallingf/blog/archives/monthly/2020-12.html#e2020-12-08T14_06_44.htm">
   mentioned</a>
 Barney Stinson's legendary rules for running a marathon.  Truly
 dedicated readers of this blog may remember that I first quoted
 Barney's rules
<a href="http://www.cs.uni.edu/~wallingf/blog/archives/monthly/2007-02.html#e2007-02-16T20_53_50.htm">
   many moons ago</a>
 when beginning to run again after a short layoff.

 Back then, I blogged a fair bit about running, and especially
 about the mental connections I made among training, running,
 teaching, and writing software.  Alas, my running life
<a href="http://www.cs.uni.edu/~wallingf/blog/archives/monthly/2011-04.html#e2011-04-03T10_07_16.htm">
   ended</a>
 rather
<a href="http://www.cs.uni.edu/~wallingf/blog/archives/monthly/2011-04.html#e2011-04-30T10_05_29.htm">
   abruptly</a>
 when the ultimate effects of an old tennis injury became apparent
 over a decade later.

<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"
       style="float: right; margin-left: 3em; margin-right: 1em; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em;">
<tbody><tr><td>
  <img src="http://www.cs.uni.edu/~wallingf/blog-images/running/des-moines2010/running-strong.jpg"
       alt="running strong in the 2010 Des Moines Marathon"
       width="150"
       align="center" />
</td></tr></tbody>
</table>

 October this year brought the tenth anniversary of
<a href="http://www.cs.uni.edu/~wallingf/blog/archives/monthly/2010-10.html#e2010-10-20T12_33_44.htm">
   my final marathon</a>,
 a beautiful morning spent on the flat streets and trails of Des
 Moines.  Such a momentous anniversary deserved a celebration, or
 at least a recollection in my blog.  However, in the blur of my
 fall semester, it blew right by me, much like the fastest runners
 on the course that morning.

 I did not completely forget the anniversary.  Several months ago,
 it came to mind, and at the time I made a mental note to write a
 retrospective blog post.  Few readers would care enough to read
 such a post, but this would be for me, a way to remember so many
 fond moments on the road and to mourn again, ever so briefly,
 something I lost.

 I should have set an alert in my calendar app.

 If this were a wedding anniversary, a spouse might have reminded
 me, but this was all on me.  (I say "might" there because my own
 spouse is not the sort to valorize anniversaries and birthdays.)
 Like so much blogging not done in the last year or so, the post
 I intended to write turned out to be vaporware.

 Here, on a beautiful sunny morning seven weeks later, I don't feel
 much need to write about that last marathon again.  Running is no
 longer a part of my day, my life, though occasionally it is still
<a href="http://www.cs.uni.edu/~wallingf/blog/archives/monthly/2015-11.html#e2015-11-01T10_16_04.htm">
   part of my dreams</a>
 at night.  Some days, I miss it more than others.  Perhaps the
 next time I feel that longing, I'll sit down immediately and write,
 rather than plan to write some months on.  That's the best way for
 me to blog: to try to capture a thought or feeling in the moment
 and make sense of it then.

 On a completely unrelated note:  While looking in my blog's image
 library for the picture posted above, I realized that the date of
 my last marathon, 10-20-2010, is a palindrome of sorts: 10 20 20 10.
 I love to play with digits and feel no compulsion to hew closely
 to dictionary definitions when it comes to the patterns I see.
 Numbers offer small joys in most moments, if we let them.
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