My post this fine day is a little different. I’ve got an invitation for you, an idea that arrived on a whim. And I’m as surprised as you might be.

Earlier this month, I was driving across town and ended up in a single, slow lane of traffic that ran parallel to the route of the city’s annual half-marathon. I knew it existed, but I’d never seen it happen.

People were walking and running at different speeds, flowing along like all the currents and braided paths in a river. Some people rocked shorts and others were still layered up against the morning air. No two bodies were the same, but here they all were, pursuing this thing.

Watching the spectacle of this flow of people, a thought arrived.

That’s a party I wouldn’t mind going to.

The moment I heard it, I was charmed by it. A half-marathon is not something I could do right this second. But it’s something I could start working toward right this second. That’s a thrill.

To be clear, I don’t run.* I’m aware that these big events are a thing people do. I even know a few brave souls who do this sort of thing regularly. What a world!

But maybe I could too.

I’ve enjoyed “projects” like this before, the kind of long-term, big, steady work that might make people outside it shake their heads. I’ve earned three degrees, written a thesis and a dissertation, and I’ve passed licensing exams. All of those were things I chose to take up, of course, but they were also all on the way to something. They were a means to whatever step was next.

This thought about the half-marathon arrived on a whim. My excitement isn’t coming logically from some previous step, and there’s nothing that it’s a gateway for. I’m not interested in doing it “so that after that I will be able to ______…”

The point of a half-marathon also isn’t to get from one place to another; it’s not a commute. It’s an activity for its own sake.

And that’s what I like about this notion. I have no reason to do this… and I have no reason not to do it. It’s a nice big goal that’s a stretch, totally for its own sake.

Why would a person do it? Why not?

So, it’s in that spirit that I, Dr. Caitlin Clair Leibman, do declare my intention to participate in the 2024 Good Life Halfsy!

I’ve got about a year here to see what happens. It’s arbitrary, since it’s based on the half-marathon’s scheduled date, but I do like that November isn’t quite the year-end. Having the clock run November to November creates a sneaky little timeline in among all these others we live by—the Gregorian calendar, school schedules, sports seasons, season-seasons, and on and on!

So, even if you won’t be signing up for the Good Life Halfsy with me, is there a “stretchy” November project you might adopt for yourself? Want to be part of a little community between now and the first week of November 2024? Send me a message with your thoughts, and I’ll come back to this project throughout the year.

Cheers!

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* I am being intentional in saying “I don’t run” instead of “I am not a runner.” The first refers to an activity one might participate in, but the second refers to a personal identity. I just don’t think attaching to or rejecting labels is going to do very much for us in this process. Maybe your Stretchy November Project is a writing effort. Who cares whether you are a “writer” or not? What’s that even mean, who says, who cares? Let’s get on with the activities and experiments that occur to us.

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