Postrace

I've recovered pretty well from Howl. The slow pace certainly helps. The lack of doing long runs has left me more time to read!

I finished "Shark God" by Charles Montgomery last week. The author traces his 19th century missionary great-grandfather's route through Melanesia in search of the "last heathens" and real, true magic. He finds that "kastom," that is to say an amalgam of culture that relates to history, religion, ritual and magic, still runs thick amongst the island people. But the illusory "magic" that Montgomery seeks is only found when he's willing to look through the silty veneer of his own pre-conceptions and the mythologies that sustain kastom.

"It's faith, not veracity, that gives stories their power. And thus charged, stories confer power back on their believers, whether that power is simply the strength of certainty, spiritual clarity, or something more...But when you fall toward mystical thinking, when you rub up against the rough edges of it long enough, it can enter you like a virus, and the world changes. There is more danger, but there is more possibility. Events present themselves symbolically. They wrap themselves in magic rather than coincidence, and their circumstances assume direction and purpose."

I found this book a solid companion to Kotler's West of Jesus.

I'm about 100 pages into "To Care and Conquer" by Derek Leebaert. It's excellent, so far.

Postrace running has so far been short stuff. Just a few aches and pains linger, nothing serious. I'll probably hold off long runs for a few weeks, then get back on the trails with a slow ramp up starting around October, hopefully for the 50 miler in April at McNaughton.