I envy people who talk about their Memorial Day plans that include camping, fishing, or just sitting in a camp chair at the lake. That’s not what my Memorial Day has been like for as long as I can remember. Just about every Memorial Day for at least the past 10 years, and maybe even longer, I’ve been getting up well before the crack of dawn, fighting a surprising amount of traffic to drive to Boulder, Colorado, and then joining a throng of thousands of other morons to run 6.2 miles in the Bolder Boulder.
This year, I at least convinced my better half that it would be a better idea to go down to Boulder on Sunday night and get a hotel. That way, we wouldn’t have to get up so early and drive so far before putting ourselves through the inevitable torture. Surprisingly, she agreed, so at least there’s that. I can be well-rested and refreshed this time before slogging 10 kilometers on nothing by my own aching feet.
To be fair to my wife, she always encourages me to go fishing or hiking, or whatever else I want to do, on the Saturday and Sunday before Memorial Day. So I do get a chance to do some fishing and get out in the outdoors on the big weekend. And honestly, by the actual holiday, there are usually so many other people out there where I’m trying to get away from it all, it isn’t as relaxing as I ever hoped it would be.
So I usually save my outdoors time for a little later in the season, and I take a vacation day or to so I can get out in the woods when there aren’t so many other people around.
But not Memorial Day. No, in my house, Memorial Day is for running a 10K. I’ll get back to the outdoors the following weekend, if I survive it.
