Dr. Forbush Thinks

I hate running. I ran cross-country in High School, and I hated every moment of it. I hated the start when everyone pushes and shoves everyone out of their way. I hate going up the hills when you feel like you can no longer run but you have to walk. I hate running down the hills when you begin to go faster than you can control and you trip and fall. I hate the finish of the run when the other runners run by you and you are doing your best just to pick your feet up and cross the line.

Somehow I thought that if I trained and got better at running I would get to the point where I could at least tolerate running. When I was young I swam on a swim team and trained extensively. Swimming like running is just a continuous motion trying to make distance as fast as you can. But running distance differs from swimming distance in that after every length of the pool you move in a slightly different way. There is gliding after each push off that offers a short moment of recovery that you just don’t get in running. So, I was attracted to overcoming my hatred of this activity.

I graduated from High School and I no longer needed to run distance again. But it wasn’t that easy, because I got older and fatter. I needed a way to exercise – to get back into healthy shape. But I hate running and when you are out of shape and hate running it is very hard to motivate yourself. My wife ran cross-country in high school and she egged me into running with her. But, she was in better shape and faster than I was, so I needed another way to exercise.

Finally last year an athletics club near our house built a pool. Finally I could workout doing something that I liked. It worked and I got healthier than I have been in the almost twenty years. Being healthy motivates you to do things that you might not normally do. And, I started running on the treadmill at the club. I did it more out of challenge than a strong desire to run. I also thought that running on a treadmill was “safe.” I could quit running at any time and just get off the treadmill at any point without a need to walk (or crawl) home after I hit the “wall” running. So, I started running more and more on the treadmill until I was running more than 5 miles. If I get to 6.2 miles that would be 10k.

But, with my new found confidence I started running 5k races, which are only 3.2 miles. And, until yesterday I always found it difficult to run a constant pace. I would run too fast, get tired, then I would walk a bit and finally start to run again. But, yesterday I finally ran a 5k race and I didn’t walk any of the race at all. And, it was the first run that I ever ran and actually enjoyed every moment of the race.

running