Can You Come Out to Play?

I'm safe. For now. Job is still in tact. The aftermath of this mess leaves only 9 out of 23 staff members that worked on our December issue. All that this chaos has taught me is how secondary work life must be to life.

I worked and work with numerous dedicated, talented, hard-working individuals. I'll miss them greatly and they deserve much better than this.

Maybe that's why I love running--hard work really does pay off. If you have talent it generally pays off too (although I don't know about that). There are no games--just hard work, fun, and a medal when you finish (no matter the time).

I saw this posted on the Birmingham Track Club's message board:

I have been cycling on and off again for about 3-4 years. I have gone from extreme riding ,100+ miles and camping across North Carolina to not touching my bike for months. Recently, I decided that I would really like to start running. My boyfriend (who also cycles) runs pretty routinely while I stay asleep in the bed. This has done nothing but provide me with an additional 40 minutes of sleep and about 10 extra lbs =) which I chalk up to womanly curves. denial.

I suppose it's not that I have a question (yet) in regards to starting to be a runner. I have been a flakey runner for a while now. What I am needing most is someone's testimony to how joining the BTC and developing a running routine has impacted their life. Cheesy I know but I am looking to better myself, my health, my spirit, etc and don't just want to think this is cool because I see half of Homewood doing it on Wed nights and Sat mornings.

Some geniune feedback would be greatly appreciated.
Sincere Thanks.


Sort of an odd request on a message board, but who am I to judge. This response caught my eye:

If you want to run, why don't you? You've mentioned no physical reason you can't that going to bed an hour earlier or running at another time of day wouldn't solve.

If you don't want to run, no marathon course to Damascus story of transformation will make you like it. Anything someone else says can only reinforce your desires, not instill them. Besides, someone who has done some serious biking won't have the same revelatory encounter with running as someone who has been mostly sedentary.

Many trees have been sacrificed to writers rhapsodizing how running is a spiritual experience and how pounding the blacktop has helped them see Buddha in every leaf. Nothing like that has happened to me, though while laboring up a hill one hot July morning I'm pretty sure I saw Elvis. A fair number of people start running, then drift away from it, so maybe running doesn't reliably deliver major spiritual change.

There are health reasons, of course. Whitecoats have cranked out enough data to satisfy the biggest numbers geek. But whatever the benefits -- better heart and lung function, longer life -- none of them make blankets any less comfortable. Nobody slaps off the alarm and thinks, "Oh boy, I can't wait to improve my lactate threshold!"

So the main reason to run is because it's fun. Running is a sport and sports are what grown-ups call it when they play outside. When you get an email asking if you're going to be at the Wednesday run, someone is asking if you can come out to play.

Sports, unlike some forms of exercise, have climaxes, events to anticipate: A century, a 10K, a trip to Vail -- cherries in the fruit cocktail of our lives. People form social groups around sports and build websites and talk animatedly about skiing and biking and running. There are no groups of elliptical trainer enthusiasts.

People may begin activities for carefully considered and logical reasons, but their passions are intensely irrational. I've seen darkness every Saturday morning since July so I can fly to another state, run 13 miles, then turn around and run back.

Irrational? Sure, but I'm as excited as a 15-year-old on his way to sex camp.

That's OK. It's the irrational stuff that makes life worthwhile. People don't run or get married or adopt puppies or do anything they love through sheer power of reason.

You know this already. You're an athlete, even if you're in temporary hibernation. You know the delights of stories about tough races and mysterious calf twinges, of how talk about Gatorade flavors segue into talk about each other's lives and how exercise is sometimes just the backdrop to conversation. You know the weird and often hilarious things people talk about when they're physically exhausted. You love how the road allows you time alone when you want it without anyone worrying that you're brooding or endlessly asking, "What's wrong?" You remember the fierce joy when you were the boss, your body the servant.--Kenyanot

There are different rules in this running world. It's not about teams--and picking or choosing. All are welcome. All are encouraged. Success is defined by how you, not others, feel about your performance. And it's fun. I mean truly, deeply, play-in-the-sprinklers-like-a-kid fun.

There are good people out there. Humanity has bright spots (although I doubt it frequently). Have a little faith, run like a kid, and just keep moving.

Can you come out and play?