A week from today, on February 18th, 2007, I’ll wake up around 3AM and strap on my running shoes, then don my shorts and race number in preparation for my first marathon. Sometimes a marathon is just a really long run, and at other times it is an expression of something very important to the runner. For me, the latter is true. The way I look at it, the most important thing I’ll take along to my race is you – in the form of a tune. Yes, a song that I will listen to on my run. To me and many people, a song is a gift, and in this case, one that I hope will conjure up your image in my mind’s eye, where I will see you helping me to endure my race and my journey.
I am dedicating this run to my brother Lorenz Gude, Shannon’s Aunt, Mary Seery, and my dear friend David Ordin. They all have something in common for me. They all left this world before their time, leaving behind family and friends who miss them deeply. Although their lives were short, they all left an indelible impression on this place and in our hearts. Heart ache is often used to describe the loss of a love, but in this case my heart aches for loss of a brother, a family member and a friend. All of us who have been fortunate to love and be loved, have also lost someone terribly important and close to us, and I know you feel this heart ache too. Among many goals with the running of this Marathon, from the mundane to the spiritual, I hope more than anything to endure the difficulties of this race to honor their memories and their names. I want to run this marathon for them because they no longer can, and I hope I can connect with each one and remember them in the fullness of their beauty. In reaching out to you I am asking for your help in making this run. Many times when I run I connect with very important things in my life – people, memories, ideas, and often enough, great inspiration. Music for me is central to this experience and many others in my life. You might say that music is like a best friend to me. Music has held deep meaning in my life through all the good times and the bad. No matter my mood or place in the world, I can rely on music to echo and enrich my feelings in the moment, and just as easily, alter my emotions in a profound way. Music for me is life, part celebration, joy, sorrow, pain, reflection, meditation, a connection with the past, and a looking glass in to the future.
So will you please play a tune for me as I run? I would greatly appreciate it if you could think of one of your favorite songs (perhaps your most favorite) and let me know what that song is. I will then make it my goal to find that song and put it on my marathon play list. I have in mind to call on your help to keep running while I listen to your song as I also enjoy memories of our times together and also hopes for renewed friendship and connection. You need not concern your song selection with how fast or slow it is, the music genre, or time that it is from. From classical to punk, folk, oldies, rap, hip hop, electronica, soul, r&b, blues, latin, jazz, bluegrass, metal, folk, country, rock, acid, house, swing… you get the idea – I’ve listened to it all, and in all of the genres there is greatness. All that is important is that this song represents YOU. I have no doubts that the song you choose will be the right one.
Although I’m reaching out to you in e-mail I have also posted this on my blog. You can find me on the web at http://blog.julians.name. I would like to capture your song with your name on my blog. You can do this by leaving me a comment on this blog post: http://www.blog.julians.name/2007/02/11/marathons-are-methaphors-for-enduring-and-im-running-in-this-one/. If you run into any difficulty with this, please feel free to e-mail or call me. I will then post your song and your name on my blog for you (unless you request otherwise). If you would also like to dedicate your song to someone you have lost, please feel free to do so on your comment. Don’t worry about song duplicates, just because someone may have posted the same song doesn’t mean you can’t. There aren’t any rules here that you need concern yourself with. I will take all the help I can get.
One last thing. I don’t know if my message will reach all the right people. In fact – I’m sure of it. I don’t even have contact information for all of my family – never mind all the people who I may call a friend. As I write this I am still searching for addresses of people that I would like to include but that I’ve lost track of. If you would also do me the favor of forwarding this message to any family member I’ve missed unintentionally, or a person you feel I would call a friend, please do so. I would hardly want my lack of an accurate or complete address book to come between me and someone I would happily connect with.
Celebrate life!
Jules
p.s. By happenstance I made my final decision to do all this on Sunday. My sister-in-law Kristen Seery was actually the first to nominate a song for me because we had a chance to catch up on the phone as I heard about her adventures as a Peace Corps volunteer in Zambia and I talked about my Marathon. Her choice? Old Crow Medicine Show’s, Wagon Wheel. Just before turning in for the night my oldest son Max contacted me on IM and he quickly nominated The Stones, Gimme Shelter. So the process has begun and it is great fun already!
p.p.s. I’m going to provide some text updates during my run from my mobile phone. If you’d like to follow those updates in real time you can view my twitter.com profile here:
5 comments ↓
For my many friends and family that stopped by (about 100 or so) and left comments here you may be wondering where they all went. Shortly after my posts on my marathon went up my host’s database had a major problem and wiped out all my blog comments. I do have a back up but I still haven’t gotten around to re-posting them (it’s a lot of work). I will do this – just haven’t had the chance yet.
Dear Julian, I was watching Factory Girl on DVD & as my husband Mick tried to fill in the gaps for me on Andy Warhol, the Factory, Lou Reed Etc, i told him there wasn’t much he could tell me that i didn’t already know! I was lucky enough to have heard stories straight from the horses mouth, as they say. It got me to thinking, where is Lorenz? & Where are you these days? It’s been way too long. I hope this email gets to you & then maybe we can fill in some gaps. Love Niomi
G’day Ni, it’s been a while!
Great to hear from you. I’ll send an email to you direct. Cheers and thanks for contacting me. BTW: you can find Dad on YankeeWombat.
[...] years ago I lost thirty five pounds of white collar fat by running and I eventually ran my first marathon last year. A few months ago a pain in my neck finally drove me to an orthopedic surgeon’s office. The [...]
Julian from time to time I google my father’s name, hoping to find something new. I’m not sure why, it’s just something I do. After 7 years I stumbled across your blog entry from 2/11/07, thank you for including my father in your thoughts as you ran your first marathon, I know it would’ve meant a lot to him.
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