El Camino

I’m back- Life has been incredibly eventful since my last post.Writing is cathartic and therapeutic for me, so I wanted to share my latest adventures. I returned to my hometown and realized the situation was worse than I thought. I’ll spare the details as it gets quite personal.

From there, I traveled to Wisconsin for a race that was canceled, to Cincinnati for a work training, Oregon to run my 40th state marathon, and then to Atlanta for a job interview.

Along the way, I embarked on planning a new and  thrilling adventure: walking El Camino de Santiago for my next birthday.

Here’s how that came to be:

During my work training in Cincinnati, we were asked to jot down notes and finish exercises in a  notebook. One exercise required us to write about  vacation trip we wanted help planning. I expressed my wish for a journey to find myself- a place to understand my life’s purpose and my impact on others.

We exchanged notebooks with randomly selected  colleagues to gather ideas. My colleague, who is originally from Spain, instantly knew where to send me after reading my prompt: El Camino de Santiago. He was surprised I wasn’t familiar with it and explained its spiritual significance, convincing me that it was something I needed to do.

The training ended on Friday, and I flew out to  Oregon for a marathon. At a 5K Shakeout Run, I chatted with a woman named Molly. It was her first half marathon race and we discussed her experiences. She mentioned having done a part of El Camino. I got chills when she uttered the words and I had to ask for clarification, it was indeed the trail in Spain that she was talking about. I shared my colleague’s suggestion, and she encouraged me further with her own story.

After the shakeout run, I spent several hours at  Powell’s City of Books, browsing travel books on  the pilgrimage. I focused on Andrew McCarthy’s “Walking with Sam.”

Today, I took my first training walk, spending 2 hours and 40 minutes on the paved bike path. 

Let the journey begin.