I Run
Saturday, January 05, 2008
A GREAT chapter outline by Rebecca...
I run. Sort of like the mailman. Rain, snow, sleet. My only two exceptions are hail (because it hurts) and lightning (because I think it would hurt.) My weather report comes directly from mother nature. If I can’t hear it while I am lying in bed then I am getting up to run.
This would not be so impressive if I lived in Sand Diego and perhaps more impressive if I lived in the Twin Cities but it still requires a bit of hardiness on my part living in the mid-west. I have learned that anything below 17 degrees feels just about the same. It’s damn cold. Also, once you are wet, you’re wet…so you might as well just keep running.
People wonder why I do this. My husband thinks I am crazy. My friends think I am obsessed. Complete strangers driving their SUVs down freshly powdered roads think I am a menace. They’re all probably a little right.
The reason I run has less to do with physical fitness and more to do with mental health. With the exception of my Saturday run (which has its own non-fitness related purpose that I’ll tell you about another day) I run alone. This is my time.
I discovered running when I began practicing law at a large firm. Anyone who has worked at a large firm or has known someone else unfortunate enough to have chosen this path knows that the firm owns you – particularly young associates. They require you to write down what you do every moment of the day. Then this handy tally is used to determine your value. Not a healthy thing for an obsessive compulsive type like myself.
So, I started running in the morning before work. Most of the year this means I am stepping out into the dark – my favorite time to run. The streets are quiet. The lights are on blink. The dogs (and the muggers) are still sleeping. It feels like I own the world. I do my best thinking on my runs. I have sorted through sticky legal questions, drafted wedding toasts and children’s books, invented gadgets, charted and re-charted career moves, talked myself off relationship cliffs, and resurrected relationships with estranged family members.
Running and thinking is a little bit like drinking and thinking. Sometimes what seems like a really good idea after four cocktails with your looped friends sounds like a recipe for disaster the next morning. Other times you end up with the next greatest business plan scrawled on a cocktail napkin. Regardless of the outcome there is pleasure in the process.
I have found my place. It’s out on the road. It doesn’t matter where I am. I can always get there. Where is your place? Where do you go to quiet your mind so that you can hear yourself think? Find it. Visit. Come back again soon.
I run. Sort of like the mailman. Rain, snow, sleet. My only two exceptions are hail (because it hurts) and lightning (because I think it would hurt.) My weather report comes directly from mother nature. If I can’t hear it while I am lying in bed then I am getting up to run.
This would not be so impressive if I lived in Sand Diego and perhaps more impressive if I lived in the Twin Cities but it still requires a bit of hardiness on my part living in the mid-west. I have learned that anything below 17 degrees feels just about the same. It’s damn cold. Also, once you are wet, you’re wet…so you might as well just keep running.
People wonder why I do this. My husband thinks I am crazy. My friends think I am obsessed. Complete strangers driving their SUVs down freshly powdered roads think I am a menace. They’re all probably a little right.
The reason I run has less to do with physical fitness and more to do with mental health. With the exception of my Saturday run (which has its own non-fitness related purpose that I’ll tell you about another day) I run alone. This is my time.
I discovered running when I began practicing law at a large firm. Anyone who has worked at a large firm or has known someone else unfortunate enough to have chosen this path knows that the firm owns you – particularly young associates. They require you to write down what you do every moment of the day. Then this handy tally is used to determine your value. Not a healthy thing for an obsessive compulsive type like myself.
So, I started running in the morning before work. Most of the year this means I am stepping out into the dark – my favorite time to run. The streets are quiet. The lights are on blink. The dogs (and the muggers) are still sleeping. It feels like I own the world. I do my best thinking on my runs. I have sorted through sticky legal questions, drafted wedding toasts and children’s books, invented gadgets, charted and re-charted career moves, talked myself off relationship cliffs, and resurrected relationships with estranged family members.
Running and thinking is a little bit like drinking and thinking. Sometimes what seems like a really good idea after four cocktails with your looped friends sounds like a recipe for disaster the next morning. Other times you end up with the next greatest business plan scrawled on a cocktail napkin. Regardless of the outcome there is pleasure in the process.
I have found my place. It’s out on the road. It doesn’t matter where I am. I can always get there. Where is your place? Where do you go to quiet your mind so that you can hear yourself think? Find it. Visit. Come back again soon.
