I used to love running when I was younger. At least, I can say I didn’t dislike it. It was just something I did regularly.
I spent most of my time outside with my best friend at the time and we’d be constantly doing things. We’d go hunting, fishing, exploring in general, and lots of other things. It certainly helped that we lived right down the road from each other and lived where there was more land than buildings.
And even before I met him, or when we weren’t hanging out, I had sisters and cousins who I would spend time with. We’d play all kinds of war games and manhunt and other things that kept us from staying still for too long.
When I was in middle school and early high school I always managed to get my mile run time to be around 6 minutes, if not less. It wasn’t that I was trying to get that, it was just my pace from always moving around anyway.
My sophomore year of high school I moved into the nearby city. It was quite the change because I didn’t have woods to run around in and play in the trees. I didn’t have a river I could wade out into the middle of to go fishing. I didn’t have anyone my age that lived near me.
The school I moved to did their mile run on the sidewalks in the neighborhood near the school because they didn’t have a better place for us to do it. My time suffered for it. I wasn’t used to running on pavement.
Then when I switched schools again a little over a year later we didn’t do the mile run at all. We did a back and forth running thing that made no sense to me at all. I don’t remember how it worked and I don’t remember how well I did on it. One advantage of moving to this school was that not only did my friends have cars, but there were places we could go to stay active.
When I was in college I was back in the house in the city with nothing to do nearby. I took a fitness class to keep myself active and did okay on the mile run but that was the last time I really ran for a while.
I tried to get into running about a year after I took that class but I was still in the city so I didn’t have anywhere to run other than pavement. It quickly fatigued me and I could only go for a short distance before needing to stop.
Then a few years ago when I was living in my last home, in the same city with nowhere to run, I had a slight advantage from other attempts to run. I could drive wherever I wanted to find a running spot.
My brother was the one who first brought up the idea of getting into running. There was a trail not far away from us that we decided to go to regularly and he had a plan to help us get into it.
I’d get to his place to pick him up on running days and he’d come out with peanut butter and banana sandwiches for us. Then we’d drive to the running trail and stretch out. One of us had a timer on our phone so we could keep track of when we needed to run or walk.
It started with us only managing to go about a quarter mile total. But then around the time we got too busy to run regularly and stopped we were going about a mile and a half.
Where I live now isn’t quite rural but not quite suburban. There are no sidewalks but the only places to run are the paved roads. I’ve thought about trying to get into running again but I keep doubting that I’ll be able to do well on pavement. It’s also very hilly which won’t help with my motivation starting out.
My brother will hopefully be getting a house nearby me soon and maybe we can try finding time to get back into running together. Everyone else in the area certainly has. Now that everybody is out of work or working from home and required to not go anywhere due to COVID-19, there are at least 50 people who go past my house every day walking or running with their friends and family.
A Life, Ensnared 