why i run

In one of my earliest memories, I am riding my banana seat bike while my parents go for a run. They’re still married and I’m too young to be left home alone, so I’m maybe 6 or 7 years old. My dad is running happy and chatty, circling back with his long legs to check on mom and I. My mom is shuffling and glowering a little and definitely not providing much in the way of commentary. It’s the 1970s so they’re both wearing unnecessarily short shorts that have somehow circled back around towards cool all these years later.

A few years later, I’m maybe 10 years old, and now my mom is dragging me out for runs with her. My parents are divorced, but both are still running. I see this is something my mom doesn’t really like and doesn’t think she’s very good at, but it makes her feel strong and fit and so she puts in the miles. The impression this leaves on me is wicked strong: running is what you do. It’s simply what you are, whether you like it or not. It’s something you do for yourself.

And so I run too. Through my teens, through college. Never on a team, sometimes with one of my parents or a friend, but usually on my own. It becomes everything to me, the single most important defining characteristic of who I am. It gives me everything – the love of my life and I became running partners at work, then friends, then life partners. It gives me everything – my health, my sanity, my spiritual time. I love it all, even the tough days. A bad day running is always better than a day without running. Give me the trails, the roads, the track, hell even the treadmill. I’ve done 5 miles back and forth in a hotel hallway because it was the only option. I’ve done a 10 mile tempo run over the only .3 mile of road that was paved and clear of ice and snow in our neighborhood. Apparently I’m pretty good at sharp turns in awkward spaces while running. If someone is aware of an event that optimizes this skill, please let me know.

I wanted to create this blog as a love letter to my first love, and as a way to share my musings on running and training from an average runner – not too fast, not to slow, with a day job and all kinds of conflicting priorities. And a pretty wicked reading habit for training books and running memoirs. This is a place for runners of all paces and distances and terrains. It’s even a place for folks who haven’t yet realized that they are a runner. To paraphrase Nike cofounder Bill Bowerman: “If you have a body, you are a runner”. To paraphrase me: “If you are a Hominid, you are a runner”. I chose this domain title with great deliberation: All The Runners. There are so many of us who care deeply for this activity and work super hard and train and compete in complete obscurity. I see you, everyday runners, and you are glorious. You are badasses. You are celebrated here.

Are you ready to talk about all of the things about running? Let’s do this!