When I was a freshman in high school in New York City, I ran track and cross-country. \u00a0I thought I was pretty good. \u00a0After all, I won a bronze metal for being on a half-mile relay. \u00a0(But I might have been the slowest runner on the relay team.)<\/p>\n
At the end of the season the coach said to me, \u201cGerry, you ought to try something else.\u201d<\/p>\n
I was crushed, and stopped running for five years.<\/p>\n
But when I got to college and as a junior noticed that I was really out of shape, I started running on the tiny indoor track across the street from my fraternity house. \u00a0I ran for twenty minutes three times a week. \u00a0I hated it, dreaded it each time, and was thrilled to get\u00a0done. \u00a0But I kept at it because I wanted to get into shape.<\/p>\n
The next year it was tolerable. \u00a0No longer painful, but not a thrill either. \u00a0It kept me in shape, I ran maybe a half-hour each time, but it was not fun. \u00a0Just necessary work.<\/p>\n
The following year something changed. \u00a0I started to enjoy it. \u00a0It was being out in the fresh air and going where I wanted. \u00a0I got to think and pray. \u00a0If I ran 40 minutes or more, I felt a runner\u2019s high. \u00a0Now I know that was from the endorphins kicking in. \u00a0It was often hard to force myself to run, but once I got started I nearly always enjoyed it.<\/p>\n
That was forty years ago. \u00a0I am still at it, running four days a week. \u00a0Generally I get great joy from it. \u00a0But don\u2019t get the wrong idea. \u00a0I am very slow now, doing a ten-minute mile on my good days. \u00a0Most runners, if I am on a \u00a0running trail here in Birmingham, pass me up. \u00a0But I don\u2019t care. \u00a0I just love being out there, sweating, getting my body working. \u00a0I pray and praise and give thanks. \u00a0No CDs\u00a0in the ears, thank you. \u00a0The sounds of nature and people and even traffic\u2013and God!\u2013are enough for me.<\/p>\n
Now I will get to my point. \u00a0(I know, you\u2019re wondering why it has taken me so long!) \u00a0So often I see other runners with grimaces on their faces. \u00a0Do you remember the biography of Michelangelo\u00a0The Agony and the Ecstasy<\/em>? \u00a0Too many runners have the agony without the ecstasy.<\/p>\n I wonder why they run. \u00a0Is it to lose weight? \u00a0To get ready for a race? \u00a0To fulfill a promise to a friend or loved one? \u00a0To themselves?<\/p>\n All of those are good goals. \u00a0But some of them are trying too hard. \u00a0They think they must go a certain distance or certain speed. \u00a0Or they don\u2019t realize that it will take a year or more (as it did for me) to begin to enjoy it.<\/p>\n In any event, I wish I could tell them, \u201cSlow down, or do something to learn to enjoy running. \u00a0Because if you don\u2019t learn that, you\u2019ll never stick with it.\u201d<\/p>\n There was a book in the 1970s titled\u00a0The Joy of Running<\/em>. \u00a0I have found, like millions of others, that there\u00a0is\u00a0<\/em>joy in running. \u00a0But only if you persevere through the first year or more when it\u2019s painful, and only if you\u00a0try\u00a0<\/em>to enjoy it, rather than trying to break a record.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When I was a freshman in high school in New York City, I ran track and cross-country. \u00a0I thought I was pretty good. \u00a0After all, I won a bronze metal for being on a half-mile relay. \u00a0(But I might have been the slowest runner on the relay team.) At the end of the season the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2043,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n