There really wasn't a good answer beyond this: Fast or slow, a run, a hike, a ski reminds me that I'm part of a big, interesting world. It seems like my body craves some kind of movement, that sometimes it's the natural state of being. Cooped up with the computer, I forget how great life is. I remember it when I am outside.
I thought of this as I went out for a run yesterday. We were in the throes of a winter storm and the plows had scraped the streets bald to the ice layer. The main streets that is. We take our chances on the side streets; those are rarely touched by a plow. I had forgotten my ice grippers and didn't feel like going back for them, so I beelined for the fail safe option, the tiny park. Only the park was adrift in snow. I floundered in the powder, realizing that my first mile was a blazing 13:56. Would a sane person have gone back? Probably. Instead I decided to take my chances on the lake road. As I descended from the park I saw another runner.
"It's a challenge!" I screamed over the howling wind. She went on anyway, but I looked back and saw her expression of dismay as she plunged ankle deep into the fresh snow.
 |
| The park in freezing fog. |
Why am I doing this? The answer has always been the same.
4 comments:
Your run sounds way more fun to me than a calculated tempo workout on a nice day. Living in California, I'd never survive marathon training. I need to inject more adventurous variety into my daily routine than that kind of discipline can provide. But I might just be able to stick it out if I lived where you do and trained through the winter. I once told a friend of mine, "You are good at fast. I am good at ridiculous."
But I agree that any run that gets you out into the world is a good one.
We both know you could hold a faster pace, but falling isn't and hurting yourself isn't much fun.
I used to love running in the storms (we don't get them here). The world was all mine. I totally get you.
"why are we doing this?" I remember well those years, and we still say it! Your answers are good ones. Now all we need here in the north is snow and storms!
Post a Comment