Hello family and friends and Happy New Year everyone! We are enjoying the fresh wintry snowy sensation today. Our dog Misty tries to eat all the snow! Every 5 or 10 feet or so, it doesn’t matter whether we are running or walking she reacts the same: with fresh excited anticipation. We as adults don’t quite always react that way, do we? Kids do, though! (OH LOOK, IT’S A SNOW DAY so NO SCHOOL! No…it’s a SNOWY day.)

Frequently, I run on Wilderness Ridge Golf Course in Lincoln, Nebraska, where we live. The golf folks rotate the colors of the flags between red, white, and blue (patriotic American colors) and with a 27-hole course, they can divide the three colors equally if they choose to do so. However, I noticed the white flags are up on the front 9 holes. That got me thinking: what do white flags mean in life when we encounter (or wave) them? Usually they represent surrender, giving up, relinquishing control, throwing in the towel.

Should I Surrender?

What if white flags could represent the opposite of the conventional wisdom? What is the contrarian interpretation of white flags? Representing the opposite contrarian interpretation, white flags would mean NEVER SURRENDER! Just think of all the life, health, and running stories that would differently if we didn’t wave the white flag and surrender or quit quite as often. Or at all. Many stories, movies, and TV shows would have to be rewritten because of the plot twist the white flags would cause. So beautiful: a disruptive catalyst that changes everything, causing a chain reaction that goes in an entirely different direction.

NO WAY! NEVER SURRENDER!

So in order to fully actualize this for myself, I decided to make a little excursion to the green on a few of these holes to encounter the white flag. The white flags said “Wilderness Ridge Golf Course” but you couldn’t see that very well due to the white snow obstructing the text upon the white flags. So I said “Never Surrender!” to each white flag and kept running, despite the cold, snow, and wind that made me want to cut the run short and consider stopping, quitting, surrendering.

Have you set running goals for the year? I have 3 of them: First, to run 2,016 miles or more. Yes, I’m going to Run the Year again! Second, to runstreak through the calendar year. Third, to break my half-marathon PR of 1:39 set at the Lincoln Marathon in 1999. If these goals conflict with each other, I may have to sacrifice one to meet the others. Or not. These are in no particular order of priority, it’s way too early in the year to prioritize them. Perhaps it’s wiser to simply keep them all “in play”, to take daily action on each of them in incremental chunks. And all of them will stoke my inner fire, keep me more active, improving my health and well-being. And health is wealth! Happy Healthy Running, Moving and Living Life to the Fullest!

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