1. Music
Music has always played a role in every aspect of my life. Sometimes I listen to music while I'm working, I listen to music when I run alone, while I write, and while I'm driving in the car for long distances. Music is everything to me and it plays a huge role in relieving stress and coping with hardships. My taste in music varies widely across many genres. There are musicians I can't get enough of and others I can't stand. There are several songs that I can fall back on, but when worse comes to worst, I know that I can never go wrong with Motley Crue or Limp Bizkit's music. If I'm in a dark place, all I need is to hear a song by either of these two bands and I immediately feel more relaxed. Anytime I hear a Motley song I immediately think of mountains, wilderness, trails, snow, beaches, water, my friends, the people I love, and so much more. All things that make me happy. Despite their controversies over the years and the harsh and angry nature of their music, Limp Bizkit was one of the most positive things I had in my life growing up. Every one of their records has the perfect balance between songs of anger and aggression and songs that you can listen to and just sit back and chill. Similar to Motley Crue, their music also reminds me of friends, nature, and outdoor wilderness and endurance sports, particularly snow sports. Due to the tone of their music, I often connect Limp Bizkit's songs with memories and stories, past and present, of hiking, running ultras, and doing snow sports in the dark during the dead of night, when things are calm and also a little more scary, so to speak. It's all very exciting to me. No matter how I'm feeling psychologically, these two bands have always come through for me, and I know I can always count on them.
2. Books
I love to read. It's so much more enlightening than TV because I can use my imagination and let my mind wander. Most of what I read is memoirs by ultrarunners, musicians, business men and women, basically anyone who I find interesting. There is one author whose books I feel I can always fall back on. That is Dean Karnazes. His debut book that came out in 2005, "Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner" is arguably my favorite book of all time. I particularly enjoy the sections of the book that contain his detailed account of running his first Western States 100 in 1994 along with his wild stories of running a marathon to the South Pole in Antarctica. This book, along with one of his others titled "Run! 26.2 Stories of Blisters and Bliss" which is a collection of short stories about his adventures, immediately put my mind at ease. Those two books are what introduced me to the whole ultrarunning world and inspired me to start writing about my own adventures. There are many books by many authors that I love and have read more than once, but out of all of them, I know I can always rely on these two when all else fails.
3. Movies
As is the case with music, my taste varies widely. I love slapstick comedy movies like "Step Brothers", romantic comedies like "Meet the Parents" crime movies like "Goodfellas" drama movies like "8 Mile" raunchy comedies like "The 40-Year-Old Virgin", and so on. There are several movies that I can fall back on, but if I had to chose my top three, they would be "Dumb and Dumber, Meatballs, and Hot Tub Time Machine". Three movies with unique and original story lines. These are my go-to movies when I'm feeling troubled and I know they will never disappoint no matter what mood I'm in. What do these three movies have in common you might ask? Their story lines all include nature and adventures in some form, two things I love. They also have a perfect blend of lighthearted comedy, dirty jokes, and sentimental moments that grab your attention. These movies are easy for me to connect to and they always come through for me.
4. Podcasts
Podcasts are becoming more and more popular every day. No matter what your interests are, you can find a podcast for just about anything. Sports, finance, cars, fashion, whatever you may be into. To me, that's awesome. I love when people find something that they're especially passionate about and they want to share that passion with the community by starting a podcast or a blog. What I think makes or breaks a podcast or a blog is how personable the hosts or writers are. If they strictly discuss the topic that they are known for, never open up about themselves, and if it sounds like they're just reading from a script, that doesn't do it for me. I'd much rather listen to podcasts where the hosts be themselves. Where they talk about their lives and rather than read from a script, they discuss certain topics, but also go off on tangents. One podcast that I love and listen to regularly is Ten Junk Miles. Founded in March of 2015, Ten Junk Miles is a "running" podcast. I use that term loosely because yes, it was conceived by and is hosted by ultramarathon runners, but I consider it to be as much of a comedy and autobiographical podcast as a running one. The line up has rotated since the show's inception, but the current hosts are four friends living in Chicago, two males and two females. I like that they have an equal number of male and female hosts because it gives listeners the opportunity to listen to view points from both perspectives. There are two formats to the podcast. One of them is Scott, the lead host, conducting one on one interviews with notable people in the ultrarunning scene dubbed "long run interviews". I first discovered them when surfing the internet for Dusty Olson interviews. I had read about him in Scott Jurek's memoir and found him interesting. After hearing the long run interview episode in which Scott (from Ten Junk Miles, not Jurek) and Dusty talk about Dusty's life as a skier and runner and as a human being, I was excited to learn that although many stories about him in Jurek's memoir were exaggerated for entertainment value, he still maintains the "Dusty" persona that myself and so many others view as an inspiration. The other format of the podcast consists of episodes dubbed "gang shows" during which all four hosts and often a friend of the show congregate in Scott's basement in Chicago and eat pizza, drink beer, tell stories about their races, and occasionally reflect on current events in the running world. The gang shows are often hilarious and chock full of R rated humor, swearing, and in some of the early episodes, drunken slurring. If I'm in a dark place, I feel like I can always listen to re-runs of my favorite episodes of Ten Junk Miles and I immediately feel better. These guys don't talk about how fast they are, what nutrition plans they follow, how they want to set a PR in every race they do, or any of that crap. They're regular, every day people, just being themselves. For that reason, it makes me feel as if they're my friends, even though I've only met two of the hosts briefly at the Minnesota Voyageur 50-miler in summer of 2018. After all, they've mentioned numerous times that the podcast was created with the intention of having people feel like they have "friends they can run with". I don't listen to the podcast while I'm running, but one thing I know is when all else fails, I can always listen to a re-run of my favorite Ten Junk Miles episodes.
5. Visual Art
I grew up in a family and household that was pretty art-oriented. My sister is an artist who has done everything from painting and pottery to working with metals and jewelry, and she is currently taking classes for product design. My dad originally went to art school when he was in his twenties and is very talented at drawing, but eventually he decided to take accounting courses to prepare him for what would be his career from the early 1980's up until now. My parents loved art and we had several pictures on the walls of our house of sailboats, lakes, and buildings with unique styles of architecture. My mom had several pictures and plaques with Gaelic poetry hanging in various rooms of the house. She passed away when I was a teenager and to this day, whenever I see something with Gaelic poetry on it, I immediately think of her. All of these pieces of art are beautiful, but what I always feel like I can fall back on are pictures or videos of wilderness, mountains, beaches, sunrises or sunsets, and snow. I've thought about making it a daily routine to spend five minutes in the morning looking at videos and photos of these things as a form of relieving every day stress that we all experience, similar to what many people seek through meditation. There are several accounts on Instagram that I follow for the sole purpose of seeing such photos and videos, including ultrarunners Killian Jornet and Anton Krupicka, Red Bull Snow, The North Face, and Patagonia. I know that when I see a post on these accounts, or if I Google image searches like "Yosemite National Park", "Colorado", and "Beach Sunrise", I will immediately feel at ease, no matter what state of mind I'm in. That is precisely why I post photos of all my outdoor adventures on social media. Those types of posts put me in a happy place and hopefully my posts do the same for others who may not be doing so well. It's also my way of telling the world to not be boring and get out there and do what makes you happy. Get out there and follow your passions and live a happy, healthy life!
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