Craving The Challenge

First and foremost, my most sincere shout out to Steve Jobs – what an incredible mind and what a tremendous loss for mankind!  The man was a true genius and I can’t believe he is gone… Makes me wonder sometimes why it is that a man like Jobs is only allotted 56 years of life, while some of the wicked and notorious human beings on the planet often times live to their 90s and 100s.  You read a story of a Nazi guard being caught living in Brazil in his 90s and you wonder – what’s the story?  Oh well, I guess I’d better leave these questions to someone with enough brain-power to comprehend them.  As one ancient Rabbi once said: “G-d, I am not asking You to explain to me the reason why bad things happen to good people… Just please tell me that there is in fact a reason….”

And also as Mama Gump once said, dying is just a part of life, and we move on… Of course, I couldn’t forget about Steve Jobs even if I tried – every morning that I grab my iPhone and take a moment to ponder the man’s ingenuity.  As was the case this morning, in fact, when I got an early jump start, choosing not to wait for 5 AM – that’s getting kind of late for my liking.  Not to mention the fact that I am extra motivated for this upcoming weekend.  What, you forgot already?  Come on, we just went over this a few weeks back, but ok, let me repeat it once more.

On Sunday morning I will get a terrific opportunity to punish myself with an extra added measure of cruelty – and we all know how much I crave such a chance!  Saturday is Yom Kippur, a day when we don’t eat or drink and do away with many other worldly pleasures for a period of about 25 hours.  As you may recall, I actually love and treasure each of these days, which only happen a few times a year.  Not so much the day itself – which actually is pretty rough – but the morning that follows, because I know that every bit of my efforts that I will exert on Sunday morning will be magnified about 100 to 1.  You know the whole deal – running on an empty stomach, after starving yourself for over a day, your body is crying for forgiveness and those little pretty stars begin to pass before your eyes….  Beautiful!

So, even though I went out this morning as well, it was all merely a prelude to the monster run to follow early on Sunday.  What can I say, this is what guys like me live for, the type of challenges we simply enjoy and never miss.  You think that’s a little crazy?  Wait till the next post, hopefully on Sunday (if I make it out alive), when I will share some true moments of insanity.  Until then,

KEEP IT RUNNING!