Summer '09

Hey remember in '09 when I almost made it through an entire marathon training cycle as a 'retired' person?

It has been an amazing experience, and there aren't many others that can relate to this experience, at this particular time in their life.

Things I Will Miss While Experiencing the Life of a Retired Person

-Enormous, record breaking amounts of high quality sleep; 9-10 hours every night. Turn in by 10pm and wake up by 7am feeling like a total rock star. EVERY NIGHT. Its likely that you may experience a couple days of awesome sleep as a worker-bee. But I'm not talking about a week or a month, I'm talking about month after month after month of 9 hours of sleep back to back to back to back. I can't even describe the feeling properly. Its not something I had experienced since college, and you can't appreciate it back then.

-Running free. In the middle of the morning. Or at 7am. Or at lunch time. Or in the afternoon. Or in the evening. Running whenever in the heck I felt like running, without sacrificing any other part of my life was amazing. Amazing.

-Eventually, time stands still and you realize racing here and there all of the time serves no end. Are we all racing around because we only have so much free time and we just want to get back home eventually? I don't know.
But, did I have time to sit on a park bench near my favorite running path with a cup of coffee for 30 minutes to think about life? I had all day. I can distinctly remember one warm, mid-week morning where the sun was shimmering through rustling tree leaves, while runners scampered by at random intervals as I sat on a bench with a coffee and nowhere to be. It was so peaceful and comfortable.

-Tons of high quality time with my new wife and my family. 2 week honeymoon in Europe, trip of a lifetime. Or how about the time when my brother wanted to know, can you play in a golf tournament with me? Sure can, I'm available man! Can you caddy for me in a pro-am event? Heck yeah, sounds fun. The list goes on and on. I probably participated in 30 activities this summer that any normal employed person wouldn't be able to swing. I'll never forget that. I wish I had every summer off.

Things I Won't Miss

-As much as you try to continue living life, you end up putting things on hold. Example: I love golf and I never golfed 2 full rounds. It surely wasn't for lack of free time. I just couldn't get myself out on the course knowing I was supposed to be networking.

-Feelings of guilt, feeling like a schmuck, feeling like I was letting everyone down (including myself).

-Indescribable boredom. Toward the end of this, I would have worked for free I was so bored.

-I will miss my old job, I already know that.

I learned a lot of things on this journey but I'll save those for another time. Meanwhile, the marathon is Oct 4, and by that time I'll probably have logged 100 to 120 hours in cube-land. I'm nervous, I'm apprehensive, I'm a little unsure, I'm....going to be less bored.