Jogging

This morning, E and I took Izzy for a nice jog. There is no other way to describe a run where your HR never goes above 130 bpm and your average pace is over 10 min miles.

It was a jog.

As I realized this (and was thankful for how great it felt, almost like a gentle massage for my track-weary legs and glutes) I remembered back to my senior year of high school. My family had moved north that year, and schedules prohibited being on the swim team at my new high school. So I signed up for cross country running.

You must realize that I used to be the girl who HATED running. In elementary school I would try and "help" my dad run his qualifying time for the 2-mile so that he could go fight forest fires every summer. But I ran around our grid-like neighborhood with him for 2 miles only, no more.

In high school, some of my skiing friends convinced me to try track in the spring. I did, and started to have something of an appreciation for running. It was really mostly peer pressure, though ....everyone else (at least me closest high school friends) were doing it. And the more I ran, the less I hated it. But still.....not my sport of choice.

Flash forward to my last year of high school. We moved. To a small town. I was doing classes at the local University and couldn't make swim practices most days with my class schedule. I could make most running practices, though. And it was cross country, so I could always get out and do longer runs from home or the U on my own for the days that my schedule was messy. All of a sudden, running wasn't so bad. In fact, the more I did it, the more I liked it....and the easier it got, and the better I got.

I was a runner.

Some how, some way, I had changed my attitude and enjoyed getting out and getting in some real distance each day. I loved running trails (still do) and tried to get as muddy as possible if the conditions warranted.

And then one day, on a training run with the team, the only other girl and I were a few steps behind the rest of our team mates as we ran steady up a hill. A woman was out in her yard tidying up her flower bed. She looked up and exclaimed something like "Oh what a nice day for a jog....I should get out jogging too."

I was offended. To the point where I still remember this exchange, and the exact location it took place (about 5 miles into a 10 mile run, out in the country on open County roads). Because of the hill, we weren't moving too fast, but we were RUNNING, not jogging. Couldn't she see that? We were polite, commenting about how is was a nice day, and yes, she should get out, too, but my inner thoughts were still ones of indignacy.

***********

Well, today, many years later, I now know that I am a runner (and skier, and triathlete) but I also have turned the corner and value a jog now and then. Especially after a good, hard, fast, track run the night before.

Jog on!
-A


....