A RUNNER'S LETTER TO SANTA

Dear Santa,

I write this letter with some hesitation because I'm not sure how much you value fitness. From all appearances you are a rolly-polly, mostly sedentary, cookie munching pipe smoker. Most runners are lean, active, diet-conscious non-smokers. Okay, I'll concede diet-conscious--many of us are also addicted to cookies and chocolate. But the smoking habit is definitely bothersome to us.Therefore, with some apprehension I make out this runner's Christmas list, hoping you will be able to view these requests from our perspective. Please do not consider me a rebel without a Claus.

1. True Grit --  not the DVD from the John Wayne movie or even the Cohen brother's latest remake but rather what was found deep within the main character of the novel, Mattie Ross. Becoming a bonafide distance runner takes true grit. It is the difference between those who turn off the alarm, roll over, and go back to sleep and those who get up and lace up. It is the difference between those who go out for a jog on the first sunny spring day and those who trudge through three inches of snow in mid-winter facing wind chills under twenty degrees. With true grit, we refuse to be flash-in-the-pan, fly-by-night runners. We become the real deal.

2. Reindeer Games -- I'm not talking about the kind you play on the computer or X-box or the kind that has turned the youth of our nation into pudgy couch potatoes. Runner's need to be physical. Give us more fun runs with our club members, great events from racing a mile to the ultra distances, trail runs, even tough mudders, color races, and zombie runs. We want to be able to fly for miles, maybe not through the sky but along some country road, mountain trail or city park. Runners are born-again kids and reindeer games keep us that way.

3. Wide-Screen Vision -- No, Santa, not a wide-screen television. I'm talking about great goals, golden goals, the kind that challenge the heart and demand courage. For some of us it's running our first 5k. For others, give us the vision of our first half marathon or marathon. We want to become people who overcome our fears and self doubts by facing giants--challenges we once thought were impossible. Give us goals that transform our characters and transcend the daily grind of this weary world. Is that asking too much?

4. New Wheels -- I'm not talking about a new car, although that would be nice, but rather refreshed and revived bodies. We runners beat ourselves up. We don't know when enough is enough. We need wisdom to know when to let up or stop, and knowledge to know what to do to remedy our ills: a good physical therapist or masseuse, an insightful coach, and cross training equipment. We don't want to enter the new year as the running wounded but rather the running renewed.

Santa, I know these requests may sound strange to your ears. You may think we have elf-image problems or perhaps are Claustrophobic. We're not. Though, we are a different breed. But sometimes it's better to be different. Maybe it's the best thing. Think about it. What would you do without Rudolf?

Dear Readers: My Christmas gift to you is a free ebook, my latest novel, The Old Man and the Marathon. You can download it for free at Smashwords.com. This gift is available through December 31.