Running Part 1

I've been running all day every day for at least the last four years and really as long as I can remember.

As a child I remember loving hallways and big open fields to run through. The feeling was one of freedom and space and pure bliss. Once I started school I remember running at recess with my friends. We were always inventing games, running around the small school yard that seemed enormous at the time. As we got older, we played organized sports: hockey on the makeshift ice field, baseball, races. When we were a bit older we ran to tackle "keep-away" was the game of choice and it encouraged a lot of physical contact.

At Bates dance camp, I began to run before classes just for the extra work-out since one of my dorm-mates wanted company. Summers in between college I ran at home to stay in shape until I realized that running made me feel like @#$% and I hated it.

Most recently, after Henry was born I chose to enter a triathlon with my friends and relay-mates Megin and Sue. I thought I'd have no problem training for a triathlon so long as I just did the run. I had a single stroller and a double stroller for the kids and I'd just go running. I see moms in the 'hood doing it all the time. Well I never did run much with the stroller. I trained a bit on the treadmill, worked with a trainer and tried to run. But in fact, I realise now my running has never been primarily on the track, at the gym, or around the neighbourhood. I'm much to much of a philosopher, an over-thinking, a critic and a judge to be the child I was running through the tall grasses or shiny hallways. I can sometimes re-create that feeling when I go for a run/walk at the track nearby or playing with the children in the fields at Danehy. I loved to run as a child not because of the running and the speed. I loved to run because I was celebrating the space around me...I relished the feeling of being alone in the world with no strings attached.