A story

As the thirty-something, walkman wearing, female runner turned the corner of her 5th mountain pass, she stumbled upon a family of hikers that were out on the Government Canyon trail. Songs from over a year ago played on the Sony walkman, because her stupid cassette player had not played nice with her, as she frantically tried to record her song set for her upcoming 4 hour run the morning of her departure. She had the intentions of getting it all taken care of the night before, but she needed the help of her worthless husband, who instead had opted for poker night with the boys. All she had was that one, dreaded 45 min tape. When her cassette tape reached the end and switched over to side A, for the 2nd time, she knew she was in for a long and crappy day on the trail.

The little eight year old, blond, pigtailed girl that was hiking with what seemed to be her mother and brother, was at the age where ideas, emotions and curiosity were peaking. She fired away questions at her mother:

"Mommy, what is route 66 all about, what's the best place to pig out in, what different types of jobs are there on Mt Whistler, tell me about Chinese cuisine, can you teach me about Asteroids"

"Marla, my dear, those are all great questions, and soon enough, when you grow older, you'll learn those things." her mother, Elaine responded. "But for now, just keep walking along, and enjoy these great trails. OH! Watch out!!!, we have a runner behind us! ERIC!!! GET OFF THE TRAIL"

Frustrated by her mother's lack of interest in telling her about the things she wanted to learn, young Marla walked ahead of her mother and brother along the jagged trail, big frown on her face, and arms crossed. The female athlete trotted by, grabbing her cantine from her right hip, hydrating to prepare for her next 12 miles on these hot, rocky and deserted trails. She watched the lone runner in the distance, as she faded in and out of clearings further down the trail, until she eventually disappeared on the horizon.

"Wow! That lady is way cool!" Marla thought.

Marla's brain neurons, clocking speeds of millions of kilohertz, were working overtime as Marla kept thinking of the many other things she wanted to know about. She wished her dad had made the trip this time, because Daddy, he always sat in front of the television watching the news, reading those science magazines with little to no pictures on weekends, and also read 3 to 4 different newspapers from the big cities, including the one Journal from that famous street, Wall. She thought to herself,

"Daddy would have taught me about those things. He would also have taught me about Asteroids if I'd asked him. I wish Daddy was here. Why did we have to come down here on a Saturday morning when it was James' turn to take the Saturday morning off?"

Her thoughts drifted away, while looking at a lone butterfly attempting to eat out of a few hill country flowers. Her mother figured that Marla was back in her little world of pondering things on her own but young Marla, had different thoughts. She had fallen in love with the cool look of the runner that ran by, and thoughts of one day being that athlete overwhelmed her.

"One day, I'm going to be just like that runner. Yep, I'm going to be cool like her,and run. Run till I can run no more." she muttered.

Later on in life, Marla had become the runner she had dreamt of back in 1982. She was back out on those same Bandera trails for a 20 mile run. Her girlfriends were out there somewhere, running as well, but most were behind her, and not within talking distance. Decked out in new Nike gear she'd gotten from recently becoming a Lance Armstrong Challenge coach, she ran up and down through ravines, down valleys, and along narrow mountain sides.

This time Marla didn't have her mother and brother with her; her father wasn't there to tell her stories. Marla was alone, facing a 20 mile run. But her husband had hooked her up with fresh, new, MP3 player songs, and wouldn't you know it, brand new Podcasts from the Discovery and Travel Channel about: Route 66, Asteroids, Chinese Cuisine, Best places to Pig out, and all about Whistler Mountain.

Sporting her cool Teva trail running shoes, camelback tube in her mouth, her right index finger turned up the volume on her Rio Player, which she had strapped to her upper left arm, she was more than ready to face her 4 hour training run. Much more prepared than the lady that got her to dream of this, 23 years ago.