31 years ago on August 5th I was finishing my California- Massachusetts run. As I enter some things onto these blogs I will add in some pictures from now and then and a bit of an insight into the answers to the 2 questions people ask me all the time. 1: Are you F….n nuts? 2:why do you want to do this? The answer to the first question would be–no more nuts than anybody else who stepped out from the “norm” would appear to be. The answer to the second question is a bit deeper and I hope is something that you will remember whenever you question what motivates me. My true belief is that God has given me two gifts 1. my health, which I take too much for granted too often and 2. an ability to run and run and run. I firmly believe I was given these things in order to help others. I also feel I dropped the ball for the last 31 years and it’s time I picked it back up again. This is about as “heavy” of an entry that I’ll make into my blogs, and I may offend people with these things, but, this is what is in my heart as I head into the next big run.
On a lighter note the pictures you are looking at are the me of today and the me of 31 years ago. Can you tell which is which? The double picture is 2 shots taken in Denver in 1978. The other pic is me running in Foxboro in July 09. In the double picture I had hair and a 28 inch waist. In the current photo–well–the hair thing. What I tell people is that I used to be able to have an afro but now all I can muster up is a half-fro. In the current photo the size of my waist is determined by which part of my stomach I want to consider to be my waist. So it’s somewhere between a 32 and a 30something.
The one thing that is the same in these pictures is my heart and the desire to do something with my running to help others in a BIG way. I’m also excited about the fact that through the blogs and your comments and emails you can join me either via the computer and/or on the road somewhere. I know for a fact that people from all over the east coast, plus Michigan, Illinois, Colorado, Ohio, Nevada and California are reading these entries and I invite you to come along and feel free to stay in touch. tardy4@comcast.net
