I was trying to think of something clever for R, but the most obvious choice is all I can think of: running.
Prior to about 8-9 years ago, my standard response to a mention of running as exercise was “I won’t even run if a freight train was bearing down on me!” What changed? Well, I wanted to go skydiving. When I signed up, one of the many forms I had to sign explained that there was a weight limit of 240 pounds. When I weighed myself, I was around 238, and the knowledge was like a splash of icy water in the face. No, I wasn’t going to cancel skydiving; I had two months to lose some weight so that I would be marginally safer when I went up in that little plane.
I started working out and dieting. Luckily I had a gym just two blocks from my apartment at the time, so I joined up and started going many times a week. I would climb on the stair-master, and spin on the elliptical trainer, and lift weights. But I soon realized that running was simpler: I could run with just a decent pair of shoes and some tech clothing. It didn’t hurt that many of my friends at the time were runners: Jake, Caleb and his girlfriend Becky. I even dated a runner and helped her during the 2004 Hood to Coast, the world’s most famous relay race.
I didn’t actually become a runner until after the runner and I broke up, though. My first race was the 2004 Shamrock Run 5K. Since then I’ve run in 63 organized, timed events, including two half-marathons. I only started keeping track of how many miles total I run in training for the last two years, but last year, for example, I ran 532.5 miles, at an average pace of 10:35 per mile - sometimes faster, sometimes slower.
I’ve gone through countless shoes, but except for a brief flirtation with Asics, the majority of my running shoes have been Brooks’ Adrenaline GTS, in size 10EE - yeah, I have a wide foot. I have so many tech shirts and shorts and special running socks to wear.
I also rely on Runkeeper to track my workouts, which means I carry my iPhone with me on a run, which means I need an arm strap. I currently use a Dlo Action Jacket and I’m OK with it. There may be others that are better but I’ll likely use this one until it falls apart.
When I’m feeling discouraged and depressed, I stop running. I know that I’m taking my mental state seriously when I start running again. I’ve taken “breaks” of up to two months, and it normally happens when the weather turns cold and rainy. I hate being cold. Several times I’ve had boys (it’s always boys in the teenager range) yell discouraging things out the window at me; once it was “Your belly’s shaking!” Screw you, kid, at least I’m out doing something about it. Mostly I flip them off; I don’t want to waste a breath on them.
But on a good day, a warm sunny day, when my legs are working and my lungs are keeping up, and I’m hitting my target pace and I don’t have to stop to walk, I feel like it’s all working. I feel alive, and human, a living, breathing creature that’s taking the most basic action possible: movement, steady and sure, through the landscape. My senses are working to warn me of dangers or obstacles, and my brain is in the moment, reacting, adjusting, and encouraging me. Although the negative voice does sometimes pipe up, telling me to slow down or walk or give up, that voice is easy to ignore when I’m doing well.
Running justifies everything else, and supports everything else, too.
