On Running...

Finishing the SG Tri - May 2011

As a kid, I loved to run.  I even ran on the cross-country team in junior high school.  I wasn't the fastest, but it didn't matter.  Then I stopped running.  In part, I wanted to focus on basketball, but one of the main reasons was that I just couldn't do it.  I found that when I ran, my mind just kept on turning and turning.  Running just wasn't relaxing because my mind would go into overdrive processing every random thought that came my mind.

When my brother convinced me start doing some triathlons with him again, I found myself running again.  I think the last race I had done before that was pretty much in law school--over a decade before.

This winter its been hard for me to want to run.  Partly that's because I feel like it's been so cold.  And I usually run at night--late at night.  And by the time that I get home, help the kids go to bed, and read to them, I have just don't find myself with the energy to go run.  And sometimes, I honestly can't bring myself to get out of the house--even though I know that I should.

Yesterday, I watched Harry Potter with my kids.  I was thinking that I needed to get out for a run, when this scene came up in the movie:

Ron and Hermione Run From An Inferno in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

In this scene, Harry, Herminone, and Ron run away to escape a fiery inferno that is consuming the Room of Requirement in Hogwarts.  I was thinking about how I needed to go for a run when we watched this together and it occurred to me that sometimes people run because they are running away from something.

I managed to get out for a run yesterday.  I didn't run as far as I should have.  Nor did I run as fast as I should have.  And as when I was in junior high, running left me plenty of time to think.  And I thought of Forrest Gump:

Run Forrest Run!

Specifically, I thought of the montage where Forrest starts running and basically doesn't stop.  Yes, he was running from bullies, but he kicks off his leg braces and runs and runs.  He runs through a college football career and eventually runs all the way across the country.  He runs until he finds himself.

I like to think that Forrest, with all of his flaws and imperfections, was not running away from something--he was running toward a brighter future.

So sometimes people run because they are running away and sometimes people run because they are running toward something.  

I'm not quite sure which of the two motivated me yesterday, I just know that that I ran.  And it was better than standing still.