Go-To-Gay: Rain Man

Introduction by Tracey Meyers

Running.

One of my all time favorite activities is running.  It is not only something I do to keep in shape, but also something I do for fun.  Yes, I said I do it for fun!

Furthermore, the activity has had such a profound effect on how I view the world and approach life.  So much so, that I am in the process of writing a book about it.

It's for this reason my heart went all aflutter when I read this month's Go-To-Gay column by Wade Rouse. Without giving too much of the column's content away, let's just say it deals with running and it spoke to me in so many ways not only as a runner, but as someone who has through her fair share of adversity.

As always, it is my hope that you take away something from this wonderful piece as I have.

Rain Man

Despite our spontaneous, live-in-the-moment, hug-a-stranger, follow-our-passion outlooks, Gary and I are very much control freaks. We are workaholics. We are competitive. We are driven to the point of obsession. We can be aggressive and impatient.

My Type A comes out mostly in work. I want to be the best. I am a perfectionist with my writing. I work long hours. I tour, lecture, write and teach nonstop. I am often on the road for weeks at a time. I will not stop until I’m on top.

Gary’s Type A comes out mostly at home. He is obsessive in creating a beautiful home, gorgeous gardens, magnificent meals. He is Martha with a pronounced Adam’s apple.

We are also Type A when it comes to staying fit. It took me nearly three decades to get a grip on my health – I lost over a hundred pounds and have kept it off for over 15 years – so staying in shape is vitally important to me. I work hard, I play hard, I exercise hard.

Wade and Gary with their friend Greg (far left)
at the Mount Baldhead Challenge in Saugatuck, MI (2012)

 

Running is my Zen. After rising early to write, I find that running keeps me in shape, physically and mentally. After a few miles, my body begins to become one with the Beach Coast, my mind begins to unwind. It is on particularly long runs that I work through my writing, be it a passage I’m having difficulty with, a theme for an upcoming book, or final edits. Exhaustion brings on inspiration: While I am running, I am always writing.

My first memoir, America’s Boy, was largely written in my head while training for my first marathon. It was on this long journey – literally and figuratively, as I lost the weight that piled on during my youth, and stopped running from something and toward something – that the book took hold.

The Michigan Lake shore

When I moved to Saugatuck, Michigan, I began to run the shoreline of Lake Michigan. I ran unplugged, with only the sounds of the water, the gulls, the wind through the aspens, my feet in the sand to inspire me.

I ran farther and farther each day, mesmerized by the stunning beauty that surrounded me.

One early June afternoon, during a particularly long run, I noticed dark clouds quickly rolling in.

I had been so far away in my head I hadn’t even noticed the storm approaching. Then, without warning, it began to rain. Not just rain, really, but the heavens opened and wept. It was a monsoon.

Cue Type A.

I don’t like to be wet. I despise when my hair is wet. I work off the philosophy that no one ever looks good wet, unless it is Michael Phelps.

Moreover, I hate running in wet shoes and wet clothes. You can’t “wick” away rain.

So, I did the only thing I could: I stopped on the edge of Lake Michigan and began screaming at the skies, imploring the clouds to hold their rain until I could make it home.
I truly believed the heavens would listen. I was very good at controlling things. But it continued to pour, and I continued to scream.

I was wet and wild. No, strike that: I was soaked and psychotic.

Gary giving it his all on race day!

That’s when I thought of the last time I’d been caught unprepared in a downpour. It was when I worked at an educational institution and was setting up a big, outside event. When it began to rain, I began to scream. A little girl, on her way back from lunch, was using her umbrella as a dance partner, reveling in the rain. She said to me, “It’s just rain, mister.”

Ah, the wisdom of children. I looked out over the lake and landscape: The scene was beautiful, the way the rain danced atop the lake, turned the sand darker, slid down the dunes grass.

So, I took that little girl’s advice: I kicked off my shoes and socks, and jumped into the lake. I let the rain wash away my “A”, and I simply enjoyed this simple moment.

Then I ran back barefoot in the rain, my mind writing up a storm, realizing that sometimes it’s OK to let go of dry and driven and get a little wet and wild. 

The writings of bestselling humorist Wade Rouse – called “wise, witty and wicked” by USA Today and the lovechild of Erma Bombeck and David Sedaris – have been featured multiple times on NBC’s Today Show as well as on Chelsea Lately on E! and People.com. His latest memoir, It’s All Relative: Two Families, Three Dogs, 34 Holidays and 50 Boxes of Wine (reviewed here) launched in paperback February 1st from Broadway, and he is creator and editor of the humorous dog anthology, I’m Not the Biggest Bitch in This Relationship: Hilarious, Heartwarming Tales about Man’s Best from America’s Favorite Humorists (NAL). The book features a Foreword by Chelsea Handler’s dog, Chunk, essays by such beloved chick lit authors as Jane Green, and 50 percent of the book’s net royalties go to the Humane Society of the United States. His first memoir, America's Boy, has been re-published by Magnus Books for paperback and Kindle. For more, visit his website, or friend him on Facebook or Twitter.