How to Grow a Runner

Running with Jessy- She is stubborn and sensitive.   Quirky and at times, quick to anger. I have been berated in no certain terms and to varying degrees due to crossing a street incorrectly, the location of a mudpuddle, the volume of eating pita chips, and once, breathing.   She is also kind and giving and incredibly intelligent. The way she sees the world challenges me to widen my own views. Since the day we met, I have laughed harder, worked smarter, felt a fire of passion for myself reignite. I have also loved more deeply, empathized more fully, and grown more complete.   We are very different. But we share a love and passion for something that allows us to continue to grow and bond on a much deeper level. That shared passion is for running. And I love running with Jessy. We ran together for the first time after we had been dating for a while. We met at a trail race and walked a lap with some of her friends. We planned to run on our first ...

This weekend I will not be running 100 miles. I was going to. I was trained to.   But the year brought rain and environmental hardship an in lieu of runners taking 6 trips around a 16.67 miles loop, with two river crossings, there will be park rescue crews watching overflowed banks, exposed roots, broken trail and mud. The race was postponed. My feet will not traverse those steps. Instead, I will run the streets around my home. I will jump rope to condition my ankles, lift weights to strengthen muscles and stretch hips that always seem a little too tight. I will continue a training cycle that was to have waned by now. I will try to push myself, despite my planned pushes being all pushed out. Training for a race is hard. Training for a race that is postponed is a bit like torture. Taking the bandaide off, ever more slowly. It is anxiety waves, ridden for weeks, only to crest too early and catch tide again. It is rearranging gear bags, packed weeks ago. ...