Just watched a very smart show and had the thought that my life could have been/should have been filled with that kind of intelligence and adrenaline-excitement and I got very close to regret. Then it occurred to me that I couldn’t go back and change things but I could give the work I do every day the same kind of integrity, find that feeling there. So okay then, let’s get it on.
In Boise, Idaho. Heading to Boise National Forest in a couple of hours to shoot the Wild Idaho Fifty Mile Endurance Run(WIFMER). This event was the first true ultra I shot, a year ago this weekend; a lot has happened since, damn near all of it well beyond anything I might have imagined and damn near all of it very, very, good. I will see the usual suspects, meet some new ones, sleep little, work lots and maybe get some photo images that enhance but will never replace the effort and the memory of what these folks, what ultra folks everywhere, do when they set out on the single track, light out down the road, go over yonder, all of it just because. I have been given a great gift in this, my second chance, and I intend to honor it with my presence and hard work, with a little bit of prayer and a whole mess of good luck, the forces willin’ and the crick don’t rise.
People who are my age often say “things were simpler then” and I think that it is a crock but then I heard this on the radio” Hey, bad news, be no rockin’ tonight/hey bad news be no rockin’ tonight, baby’s gone, ain’t nowhere in sight.” Okay then, simpler and when I first heard that I had no idea that rockin’ meant what rockin’ meant in the way that Rockin’ meant it, although the parents of my generation who said it was all about sex and shit, they were right about thinking it was pretty simple and outright scary. Me, I thought it sounded great and you sure could dance to it.
Gonna go to Mt Hood today to shoot a 50 mile race tomorrow. Gonna see a lot of people I know, meet some new ones. Gonna drive home late, sleep some and shoot another mountain run on Sunday morning at Hardesty; gonna see a bunch of people I know. Meet some new ones. Thursday I’m gonna go to Idaho, to the Boise National Forest and shoot a 50 miler and see a bunch of people I know, meet some new ones: all these people I know love what they do and where they do it. I sometimes think I am pretty damned lucky to be allowed to participate in my own little way. Correction: I think that every freakin’ day. Rock on, y’all, the best is yet to come.
“It’s one of those things that I just got lucky, and I didn’t screw up. It’s about being lucky and not screwing up, and trying to be ready for some moment if you happen to be the right place.” David Burnett, Photographer on a famous Olympic image (Mary Decker in ’84) I ain’t him, and what I shoot isn’t Olympic in stature but it’s damned hard for the athletes and not easy on me so when it works, and it sometimes does, I think, wow, I got it, well, really, I didn’t screw it up. Nice to know I’m not alone with that.
Photo Credits
All Photos Are © Michael Lebowitz – All Rights Reserved
First Posted At Running Before Daylight
Recent Michael Lebowitz Articles:
- Tarmac Meditations #205: Images in the Sunrise
- Tarmac Meditations #204: Images From the Road - Smoke Risin'
- Tarmac Meditations #203: Images From the Road
- Tarmac Meditations #202: Images From the Road
- Tarmac Meditations: Haiku # 42
You’re a good man John. Thank you for reading and commenting.
Great photos, Michael. Thanks for the images–both visual and verbal.