Team 99 Counties: Live for today, but remember past

Daren Schumaker of Cedar Rapids and Dennis Lee of Walford are attempting to run across Iowa's 99 counties to raise money and awareness for the American Heart Association. They've completed 87 counties. This is No. 85. Next: Cerro Gordo

The past, the present and the future.

To many, the concept of the past, the present and the future is as simple as yesterday, today and tomorrow. As simple as where you started your journey, where you are now and where you are going.

However, as most of us know, things are seldom as simple as they seem, seldom so day and night. Dawn and dusk blend yesterday and tomorrow into today so effortlessly it becomes difficult to know when one ends and the other begins. During most journeys, even those from one end of the block to the other, you can literally see where you were and where you are going from where you stand.

Regardless of the length of your journey, a great deal can be learned if you think about the past, the present and the future.

On Nov. 28, 2015, we departed Walford just before dawn and headed west on Highway 30, literally driving on portions of our routes across Benton, Tama and Marshall counties during our more than four-hour journey to Crawford County. As we entered Denison we, for the first time, noticed snow had accumulated in places, something we had not seen during our westward drive across Iowa. While en route to the intersection of 110th Street and D Avenue, where we would start our journey, we noted the entire landscape had been coated with ice.

The temperature was only in the mid-20s as we took our first eastward strides, a wind out of the northeast nipping at our faces. For the first five miles we learned the shoulder where we were running was rough and frozen, and the road was slick. We were sliding along, literally up one hill after the other. By the time we had crossed Highway 59 and entered Schleswig, the hills had punished us a fair amount. We briefly dipped our toes in the puddles that were quickly forming under the sun and in the streets of Schleswig before returning to D Avenue to continue our eastward journey.

During the next six miles we enjoyed a sun that warmed us and the surrounding air, thawing our hands, feet, the ground and the snow upon which we were running. The temperature continued to climb into the low 40s and the ice that had covered the power lines along our route began to fall as we passed — seemingly waiting for our audience before plummeting to the ground. We continued to climb hill after hill as we arrived at Highway 39, where we pushed north for one mile before turning east on C Avenue for the remainder of our journey.

We climbed upward for three miles before rolling down a two-mile hill through Boyer. We enjoyed a flat mile and crossed the Boyer River before summiting the largest hill we had yet faced, atop which we could see an even larger hill. We kept our steady pace and reached what seemed to be the top of the world shortly after completing our 28th mile. From this vantage point we soon realized we would have to climb one more monstrous hill before our work would be over.

The sun began to sink low in the sky, the wind made its presence known and we again saw our breath as we climbed one last hill before enjoying a half-mile downhill that took us to the end of our journey, the same spot where we had started our run across Carroll County. We completed our 85th county, running 31.2 miles in 4 hours and 30 minutes, finishing as dusk crept in around us.

The lines that separate the past from the present, and the present from the future, are so fine it is difficult to know when you've crossed from one to the other. This reality is best explained by Harriet Beecher Stowe, who stated, 'The past, the present and the future are really one: they are today.' Many of us see the past better than it was and would like nothing more than to step back in time to the good old days. Many of us see the present worse than it is and would like nothing more than to get through the stress of today and on to tomorrow. Many of us see the future less clear than it will be and worry about what is to come rather than do something about it.

In fact, it is so easy to long for the past, worry about the present and hope for the future that we often forget to enjoy the moment. The moment, the now, the present is all we really have. The past is behind us and we must learn from it. The future is ahead of us and we must prepare for it. The present is now and we must live in it.

The present is our gift.

Allow the future and the past to influence your present. Remember tomorrow and yesterday as you live today. Remember where you started and where you are going from where you stand today. Whether your journey is a single mile or 31 miles, enjoy the moments — the gifts — the journey of life gives you every single day. If you look hard enough, you will find them, even if you're in Crawford County.

Inspiration through perspiration. Become active or make a donation to Team 99 Counties or the American Heart Association to help fight heart disease today.

l To make a donation or buy a T-shirt, email Dennis Lee at telcoden@yahoo.com