Running Errands

This title is just begging for some kind of joke about your refrigerator, or traditional Native American names.  Alas, this is a free blog and you'll get no such entertainment out of me.  And I already used the refrigerator joke in September :(

     These are my new running shoes.  Their continuing mission, to explore uncrowded, lesser-run trails; to seek out wildlife and no civilization; to boldly go where most of us have such a hard time going: outside (or more generally: off the computer).

     I’ve been running since I was a kid, mostly from bullies but also around tracks, up roads and even for physical fitness tests when I was in the military.  I thought I was pretty fast, and at least a few of the other kids would have agreed, but I was never “THE fast kid.”  When I was in the military I took myself out on a lot of gut-wrenchingly hard runs, but never with enough consistency.  I would train for a few weeks, or even a few months this way, then ultimately get distracted by something else and have to restart the cycle.  My PFT scores would always remain quite good, but never amazing.

     Last year, as I have griped a few times, I had both mono and a motorcycle accident.  Both of these kept me from doing almost any kind of physical exercise (except thumb strengthening via the Nintendo, which I didn’t even do).  Well, absence makes the heart grow fonder, even for abusive relationships.  Thus, I came to long for the day when I could start running, lifting or even playing Ping-Pong again. 

     Since I had to start out slow, and since I didn’t remember with glee those gut-wrenching death runs, I decided to make running a lifestyle instead of an ordeal.  That was June and I haven’t missed a week since.  I think I’ve had a couple weeks of just 2 or 3 runs, but that’s still pretty good.  And only a couple runs have been anything harder than would allow me to keep a smile on my face the entire time.  That includes a couple trail races that I entered (but that’s another story).

     Today is the day that I can actually say that running has become a lifestyle.  Instead of going out on a particular course, for a particular length of time, or even to train for a specific race/goal, I went out to return my library book.  I ended up going the long way so I could be out for a little longer, true.  But the goal was to literally run an errand.  So while I may not be bouncing out of bed at 5am all chipper and ready to go set a record, I am actually starting to use running as way to get around and, more importantly, because I enjoy it.