august, adj: marked by majestic dignity or grandeur

Yesterday I ran an easy 2.5 miler around a wetland near our home. The marsh was vibrant with pink and white wild hibiscus blossoms. I stopped to take video and photos from my TikTok Content about the value of such wetlands. I let myself do that kind of thing these days. This August doesn’t hold the same pressures as Augusts past.

The image above shows a running journal extracted from August, 1978. It shares that I ran 424 miles in June and July, a modest yet intelligent amount of training after an intense track season earlier that year beginning in January and lasting through mid-May. I ran about 40 miles a week that summer, raced once at Nordic Fest covering 15K in 54:38 on a hilly course rife replete with trail running, and worked as a janitor at a high-rise building near Cumberland on I-90. I even sold $205 worth of paintings in mid-August.

But I was determined to have the season of a lifetime in cross country, and packed up the stereo after playing the entire side of an ELO record, including Standing in the Rain, Big Wheels, Summer and Lightning, and Mr. Blue Sky, the perfect inspirational music set to leave home to attend Luther College my senior year.

I’d cut off the long hair grown the previous year, shaved the thin beard, left a 70s mustache and got contact lenses. That was a personal reinvention. It felt good to be free of all that scruffy looking stuff. I felt mentally healthy and eager to run fast. “This season we have 13 meets in 2 monthes and 1 weeks’ time,” I wrote in the journal. “With over 2500 miles of training within a year’s time…350 miles thus far this summer. I feel ready to begin the sason, strong and fit but not stale. My schedule is flexible. Rest will be of the utmost while producing, creating, and training.”

“My goal is to compete as 3rd man or above. Track season indicated I am capable, 13 meets, I can be ready for each one. This is my last cross-country season. Hah. Eight years of getting read. I can honestly say I have never been more prepared. Ready for once.”

“Staying healthy is number one concern. Staying fit comes second, but is still the goal. Stretch the line but do not yank it without some sense. 21 years old. Healthy. Proud. A runner with capability. Explore.” I’d cut off the talon of a road kill red-tailed hawk and commissioned a hawk claw necklace with a local jeweler to hang around my neck. Illegal as hell, but I did not care.

Then came a week in Bethel Horizons next to Governor Dodge State Park on an R.A. Retreat in the hills of southwestern Wisconsin. Ran 70 miles that week with an 18-miler back at Luther College on a Sunday run.

Is it any wonder the month of August still feels like an august time to me? The tone of the light and the turn of the sun still feel like life spinning on a fulcrum of time out of mind. I’m still running. That’s all that matters now.