🏃♀️
A cup of coffee down, kids stirring, husband home safe in bed and all the world is still asleep. Saturday. My favorite day. It is either long slow distance day or race day or rest day (which is to say, a far walk and a mile or so jogging). The freedom to run anywhere, any time, in any weather and on any day or in any physical condition (hello injuries?!) is something I hold fast to.
Tomorrow is Saturday here, so I have spent considerable time today mentally gearing up for a long run. Eight to ten miles shall be good enough, what I can cram into an hour and change. How many miles in a large loop and how many hills or trails are yet to be determined.
I cannot fathom living in a place that would prevent me from enjoying this one simple thing. But there are many who do amongst some 7.4 billion of us. So I run for them.
Running, the very act, requires freedom of expression because we all have our own form, cadence, level of stamina and pace. We all who do run are free to do so for any reason. I am free when I run and that causes me to swell with great joy! Long before the toes or feet or sweat glands.
I am free to breathe fully and listen to cars whiz past on a crisp autumn day. I am free to bask in the earliest rays of the sun after twilight; here in the high desert that is some measure of magnificence! I am free to slap on yak trax and saunter, if you will, the two miles uphill to our local grocery and the slow and slippery two miles home. Well, 1.9 miles to be more exact. I just run once more round the block to feel better about it. Got a thing for round numbers!
I am free to race and compete and free to stop and view wildlife or water flowing past in the river basin downtown. I am free to enjoy snacking all day for the energy spent. There is also great freedom found in some roughly nine hours each week meditating, listening, leaning forward, learning and praying. I could never freely experience that if it were not for being solely focused out pounding the earth on foot.
When I feel this freedom, there are some visuals that help to explain it. It's like skydiving. I do get that adventurous high! It is free like love, and it is like having your body purged of all negativity, just like repeatedly being hugged. It enables me to freely be a better momma. In running, I do not have to conform or compare. I am free to be me!
And perhaps the greatest aspect of finding freedom in running is that it helps to set me free of addictions to worry, fear, not being enough or not being good enough. As a person who boasts a type-A personality, worry, fear, guilt and shame have eaten huge chunks of my happiness and all sort of bumped into my life. Running helps me sort that all out every day and gives psychology permission to compartmentalize it for tomorrow, when my foes will greet me. I take to the roadways to put them in their places. Those things, they can chase you all your life. But running through them (perhaps whatever is zen to you acts much the same) can channel them in the right direction!
Today I ran. Tomorrow I will run. And not regret one single step!
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STOPAwesome story, there is no better sport than running. The early mornings, the hills, the freedom is such a blessing.
It is :-). May you have a happy, healthy and joy-filled day!