"The Barefoot Jurassic 10.24K Trail Run"

Everything you can imagine is real.

- Pablo Picasso

Fired up the "time machine" this morning, set the controls for about a 150 million years ago, fastened the seat belts, cranked up some Jimmy Buffet tunes, and held on tight for the white-knuckle ride through the time warp. We seemed to get there in hardly any time at all - Jimmy just barely got through the first verse of "Margaritaville"!

We exited our well-used PTTC (Personal Time Transition Craft), breathing in the ancient air, rich and moist with the pungent aroma of the forest floor and lush vegetation. Hmmm, was that movement in the underbrush? Have to be cautious...it's a locale known for Velociraptors. Did you know that velociraptor means "swift seizer". That means it can run waaay faster than we can and it has teeth that it's not afraid to use! And it has feathers?! Weird. Ah, we'll risk it. Throwing caution aside, with provisions in the day pack including some dates, some almonds, and water bottles filled with a mixture of water, lemon juice, agave syrup, and chia seeds (to sustain our middle-aged energy), we headed out for an adventure run - "The Barefoot Jurassic 10.24K".

Running in the rain forest invites the imagination to go just a little crazy - the giant slugs, the massive snakes (OK, so that's an exaggeration), the giant ferns (that's not), the soaring trees, and the exotic-sounding, melodious songs of the island birds. Imagination is understood as, "the mind's capacity to generate images of objects, states, or actions that have not been felt or experienced by the senses". As we ran the trail, barefoot steps virtually soundless on the soft, damp ground, it was easy, therefore, to imagine that we were alone in a primordial forest, visitors from an impossibly distant and future world.

Remember when we were children? Everything was possible and our imaginations were robust, vital, and full to overflowing with creative power. We could be whoever we wanted to be, go wherever we wanted to go. We could turn a large cardboard box into a clubhouse or a castle or a moon base. We could travel at warp speed to the future and "chill" with extra-terrestrials in distant galaxies. We could return to the past and hang out with Robin Hood and his posse, deep in magical, Sherwood Forest. It was great fun and at the end of the day we could go home for dinner and be happy and content with just being ourselves...with a pretty good chance of sleeping soundly through the night.

We're never too old to exercise our imaginations and from what I understand, the very act of doing just that helps to keep our brains youthful and resilient. Using our imaginations is a form of play, a true source of wholeness and health - good stuff for we seriously minded adults!

Ten point two four excellent, fun-filled kilometres, "The Barefoot Jurassic'. Gotta go...the time machine (and dinner) await.

Play more,

Duncan.

Image: Running in the Elder Cedar (S'ul-hween X'pey) Nature Reserve on Gabriola Island.