Introduction

Millinocket, ME: Finding Home on a Long Run 

There is a strange mental phenomenon that occurs in runners during a half marathon or marathon called “hitting the wall”. Simply put, it is a loss-of-fight feeling or sense of imminent surrender at a certain mileage point in the race made manifest by the pairing of physical and mental exhaustion. When a runner hits the wall (or at least when this runner does) there are a mere two options for next steps: either quit entirely or knock down the mental barrier to finish the race. 

I first conceived of this blog idea while attempting to take a sledgehammer to one said wall during the Millinocket Marathon in Maine, December of 2019. Before I go on, I should tell you that this blog is by far the best brain-child to come out of my mind during a race. Other highlights have included singing Camp Mishannock summer camp songs over and over on loop to keep my pacing up (also during the Millinocket Marathon) and testing myself to see if I could still list all 50 states, their capitals, and their abbreviations to take my mind off of my very sore left hip (Bay of Fundy Marathon in Lubec, Maine and Campobello Island, Canada 2019). This being confessed, it was something of a Christmas miracle that my brain came up with “travel guide/memoir with a twist” during the usual delusional fog that is hitting the running wall. If this writing idea fought through my normally scattered, survival mode running brain to make its way into my conscious mind, I figured it must be fate that I write this series of reflections for all of you. 

I know some of you might be wondering why a non-celebrity would be writing a memoir-style travel blog at all. After all, I’m not well-known, I don’t live in luxury, and you probably wouldn’t lose your mind if you caught a glimpse of me walking to and from my job in Boston. Who I am, however, is someone with some great stories, a humorous collection of misadventures, and an absurd amount of learned lessons to share about people, places, and finding moments of peace and happiness amidst the craziness of it all…no matter where you are on your life’s path. As you read, I hope that you learn to look for and embrace feelings of home in both the expected and unexpected places.