Bucket List

I spent last weekend in the mountains of New Hampshire with 11 people crazy enough to join me on "The Situation"; my team for the 2010 Reach the Beach Relay.  To know what this event is like, first stay awake for 30 hours, run anywhere from 4 - 8 miles every six hours while awake and make sure the last 1/4 mile is on a nice sandy beach. Throw in 5000 other runners, more porta-potties than you ever want to see,  and there - doesn't it sound like fun???

Actually it was and I have to say we laughed - a lot! (What else do you do at 3am when you are awake and wearing a headlamp?)  Upon crossing the finish line I thought to myself - "there, another thing on my list - complete!".  It wasn't until later this week when reading a magazine article about Randy Pausch that the whole "bucket list" concept really impacted me.  You may recall Randy's very poignant "Last Lecture" as he was a professor at Carnegie Mellon who became a YouTube sensation for giving his students the lecture of a lifetime just prior to his death. Anyway, like I said, I was reading an article where Dr. Oz was recalling a conversation he had with Randy when they spoke about taking a trip to swim with the dolphins.  Randy stated it took a terminal diagnosis for him to take his family on this trip they had always dreamed of.  Dr. Oz, hearing Randy's message loud and clear, booked the same trip for his family that very day for he realized how quickly life can change and why not do those things on our "lists" for if we do not - will we ever?

For me that is what it was all about - just doing something many consider outside the norm. For those who have done it (even though we may groan and complain during every one of those 30 hours) holding that medal can be pretty satisfying.  The past 3 years have been full of teachable moments and if I have learned anything it has been that my list will always get longer but as long as I can continually cross things off of it, then I am truly living.

Hmm, not sure why I am feeling somewhat so  introspective at 5:30am.  I suppose the fact that I am getting ready for a 20 mile training run with my brother may have something to do with it.  Running a marathon with my brother - yes, another item off my list.  What is on yours and what are you doing to make sure you get to cross those things off as "completed"?