Running tales from Team 99 Counties

Editor's note: 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 97 counties. This is No. 91. Next: Des Moines 

Baseball is a game of adjustments.

Adjustments are made during the winter months, during spring training and during the season. Adjustments are made between innings, between batters and between pitches.

In fact, baseball is such a game of adjustments that Eddie Murray, the Hall of Famer and former Major League Baseball first baseman and designated hitter known as 'Steady Eddie,' once stated, 'Baseball should really be called adjustments.'

Despite this statement, Murray also is known to have discussed the importance of trusting yourself, trusting your instincts and knowing when to stick with your game plan as essential elements of baseball success. So, to be successful in baseball, should you make adjustments when things start to go sideways or should you trust yourself and your instincts? The best way to answer this complicated question is with one simple word. Yes. To be successful in any aspect of your life you need to make adjustments and trust yourself and your instincts.

On May 8, 2016, we departed Walford at 6 a.m. and headed west along Interstate 80, allowing ourselves a few extra minutes to take a detour to the intersection of Nighthawk Avenue and 350th Street on the border between Audubon and Cass Counties — just a mile north of Interstate 80 — to take in the sight of a giant cottonwood tree that, despite all odds, had literally grown in the middle of the intersection. After our detour, we refocused and headed southwest to our destination — Shenandoah and the western border of Page County.

At 11 a.m., we found ourselves standing on the west side of Highway 59 in the 70 degree warmth of the sun and gazing into a 20 mile-per-hour east wind. As we crossed into Shenandoah and Page County on West Thomas Street, we became almost instantly lost as we sought to locate the childhood home of the Everly Brothers. We attempted to take what we thought was a shortcut to our destination rather than sticking to our planned route in hopes of shortening the length of our run by a few tenths of a mile. After several detours, we finally found the small home where the Everly Brothers first developed their musical talents, but we continued to get lost on our way out of Shenandoah — even running up a hill to only find a dead end. We eventually headed out of town on a hilly gravel road and before we had completed our fifth mile we jumped onto a trail that followed the shade cast by hundreds of walnut trees and took us southeast toward Highway 2.

We literally climbed up from the trail and onto Highway 2 after completing our sixth mile, so as to begin our eastward march into the wind toward Clarinda — the home of the Clarinda A's where Eddie Murray's teammate at Locke High School in Los Angeles and fellow Baseball Hall of Famer Ozzie Smith played from 1975 to 1976. En route to Clarinda, we passed Pioneer County Park and Yorktown, climbing many hills before entering the town on West State Street where we chipped away at our 19th mile. We admired many beautiful homes in Clarinda as we made stops at the Page County Courthouse and the Glenn Miller Birthplace Museum, passing Ozzie Smith Drive and the field where the Clarinda A's continue to play ball on our way back to Highway 2.

We continued to battle the east wind, crossed the West Nodaway River during our 22nd mile and climbed three hills that were each at least one-mile long on our way to the conclusion of our trek — a tiny spot on a map that took us 4:00:28 and 27.35 miles to locate.

Baseball is a lot like running, and a lot like life — they are all games of adjustments. Adjustments made as you prepare for the season, adjustments made after you get lost just steps into a run across Page County, and adjustments you make every hour, every minute and every second. Even adjustments that you make as you read these words.

Most of us don't willingly make adjustments because they often take us out of our comfort zones. They take us to and present us with things that are unfamiliar and that we fear. To succeed in baseball, running and life you must make adjustments. However, to succeed you must also trust yourself and your instincts. Make adjustments when that voice in your head tells you you're not happy with things, when that voice tells you that you deserve better. Stay the course when that voice tells you to be patient, that you're already on the right path and your hard work will be rewarded in time.

Leave your comfort zone. You can do this by trusting yourself to either make adjustments or to stay the course. Tough times don't last, but tough people do. Trust your vision as vision is the ability to see things invisible. Act like you're invincible, but know you're not. Adjust to life. Recognize, revise and resume so as to develop resilience. Most importantly, remember the most basic goal of baseball, running, and life — to have fun. Keep smiling, even when you strike out swinging, get lost and run into the wind — or get knocked down by the ups and downs of life.

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

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