Running.....

A local suburban newspaper had an article about running. Nothing particularly interesting, just random thoughts from a young lady who suggested that running doesn't clear her mind. Rather she is fill with numerous thoughts about her surroundings and what might happen to her if she fell and broke a leg. I never had that thought, but I did fall.

The article reminded me about my own running and how it is clear to me that it is harder for me to discontinue running than it was to begin running. That's odd because there is a lot less pain in slowing down and not running 6 or 7 miles in the summer or winter. In the beginning, a mile run was exhausting.

It's not that I don't run, its just that I don't run. I still try to get 20 minutes or so on a treadmill and have graduated to various other machines to fill my exercise time. After two knee scopes and a third on the horizon I am pretty sure my dream of running into my 70's is unreachable.

I started running because Joe did and I figured if he could do it, I could do it. Now I would never suggest that I was anywhere near as good as he was, but I achieved more that I thought I would be able to when I first started. I guess we were both caught up in that 70's explosion of running that was attributed to Frank Shorter and others.

Joe was a machine. He would run to work, all down hill and he would run home, all up hill. He ran the first marathon I had ever seen and made it look easy. He ran sub 36:00 10K's and put in huge amounts of miles. I ran and cut back on my beer drinking and hoped to break 42:00 10K. I am pretty sure that Joe has a list of ever mile and race he has ever run.

I think that of all the runs we did together, he was always in front of me, the Perrier 10 mile comes to mind most often. It was run in Golden Gate park and as I recall we celebrated by going to a really great movie afterward. Anyone remember The Wanderers? A really good movie.

Anyway my journey is changing and I will need to change with it or figure out how to deal with the medical cost that comes with continuing to punish my knees. I guess that is what life is all about. So how is your life changing?