Some steeple clock chimes eight o’ clock over the sound of the Willamette Valley’s late summer, which is breezing through leaves outside my open windows.  Bruised legs, half-opened boxes and strewn-about things signal the seasonal transition.  Although this transition involves running and its greater causes, I’m luckily no more injured than I am moved. Finally, I leapt in the direction whose door was cracked open.

I have loved coaching high school xc/track, training/competing with strong women, directing good causes [to improve athletic facilities and access to them for all], etc. in my hometown.  But feeling farther away from certain loved ones tugged at my soul; being in Portland rendered me conflicted among all the migrating uberhipsters and all the closely knit running community ties.  Late into the winter and spring, I thought I knew I’d be heading east to pursue an opportunity to coach cross/track at the collegiate level. 

So I researched, reached out and put myself out there for consideration for whatever position I could find to pursue my perceived passion.  I waited, and waited, as I went about the aforementioned tasks – completing coaching the spring high school season, healing my spring accident-injury, working how I could, and assisting high school running camps at various altitudes in high-peaked mountains.  Somewhat serendipitously, one college coach encouraged me to call another between sessions spent working at Steens Mountain Running Camp. 

Lo and behold, the direction in which I got to leap was disclosed: south.  South meant away from all loved ones, away from any plan, away from assumption.  South meant closer to aspirations, closer to my gut, closer to exploration.  That said, heading south didn’t mean heading that far south, but even a slight change in geography can have massive implications for relationships and living, let alone running!

And although it is not easy to opt to be in a new and different place and to do a new and different thing, this experience is amazing.  Easily, I am immersed in the enthusiastic, vibrant, competitive, hard-working team, and I find myself enjoying coaching more than I ever have.  True, I’ve raced a few of these ladies and led some of them at summer running camps when they were in high school; but witnessing the collegiate student-athlete experience and the unique environment fostered by an inspiring coaching staff exceeds any expectation I might’ve had about assisting a Division I Pac-10 program. 

This is diving in and I’m loving it, even though I’ve yet to discover where my spatulas are packed.