Land Park 6 and Running Monks

I told myself last that I would forego track workouts this week after the scare with my left quad last Thursday. So I this morning I headed to Land Park for a quick 6 miles. I finished with a 7:18 mins/mi average and felt good about the run. I was amazed at how many runners were at the park this morning...fast runners. I like to pick out runners ahead of me and see if I can catch them. I caught all but one this morning. After clipping off a 7:02 mile and not making hardly any ground on her...yes, her. She stopped and started walking back toward me. I could clearly see the ING NYC Marathon shirt she sported. Wow! I wasn't sure if it was this years, but I think it was. That means she ran in New York on Sunday and kicked my a$$ on Tuesday. Nice run.

We read about the exploits of Dean Karnazas (ultra runner extraordinaire), his documentary, "50 Marathons in 50 Days " is the stuff of legends. His 50th marathon was a sub 3 hour performance at Boston. But what you read about a people who ran 100 marathons on consecutive days? What if they did this for years on end, in the middle of the night, on mountain trails wearing straw sandals? That's exactly what the Buddhist "Marathon Monks " of Mt. Hiei, Japan do. They use the runs to help them on the path to personal awakening. One of the first things a person learns about Buddhism is the Four Noble Truths (1. All life is suffering, 2. The cause of suffering is craving/clinging, 3. Suffering ceases when we relinquish craving, 4.The path to cessation of suffering is the Noble Eightfold Path...but that's another entry). For these monks, I'd say the cessation of suffering comes when they stop running! Seriously, check out the link. It's very interesting.

May all be free of suffering.