Running: A Love Story

Running is my center. When I was twelve years old, my high school’s cross country coach coaxed me into running more than a mile for the first time in my life in an attempt to recruit more people for our sparsely populated team. Since then, it’s been a part of me. It’s something that grounds me. It is a force that has followed me through the twists and turns, trials and tribulations, triumphs and tragedies. It’s a constant, and yet it is dynamic. It’s like the go-to romantic storyline: the main characters, despite whatever force looks to be able to separate them, ultimately cannot remain apart. That’s me and running. At different times, it has been many things for me. A challenge, a comfort, a co-conspirator and a crutch: running has been each of these; but it is always, always my companion.haven’t been giving myself the option to wimp out, and that makes going out the door a given rather than a decision. So I’m proud to say I’ve made it out six of the past eight days--it would have been seven had I not taken a day to hit the slopes instead. I’ve been gauging my effort and time rather than pace or distance for this first part back. 35-60 minutes at a moderate, couldn’t give a speech but could probably keep up a very breathy and brief conversation, has been where it’s at. I’m hoping that building a steady foundation will keep me healthy and able to build up to a little higher mileage in the coming months.

Happy frozen training everyone! Unless you’re somewhere warm. In that case, happy sweaty training!

Until next time, Paige