Why I run

I'm up early this morning at 6 AM.  I am usually a night owl, I function better late night. But ever since I became a school teacher I have to adapt to getting up at 5 o'clock every weekday.  And now I actually like this time of the day.

I'm still on a runner's high from yesterday Atlanta Track Club Cartersville 10K race.  Got a new PR for this distance: 51:02.  Three minutes better than my last time. I wanted to go out and run for a few miles today, but I remember last time I did that after the Grand Prix Grand Finale 5K when I got injured and had to cut back for about 5 weeks.  That was my first real serious injury in a year.  It happened, I think, because I went out too fast, wearing too tight shoes (cross country flats), and ignoring the pain in my right lower calf.  I believe it's called the Soleus muscle.  I only ran 2 miles that day but the lower right leg got extremely sore the next day and the following days.  I also did not treat it with ice like any sensible runner would.  Only after a week or so, when I could not run even for more than 5 minutes without getting the shooting sensation and extreme tightness, when I started to use ice bags on it for about 15 minutes at a time.  When I was younger, healing or recovering from an injury usually took a few days, now it seems to take forever (2,3 weeks).  Hey, it's life, gotta accept it, there's nothing I can do about aging, right?

I caught this running bug a little over a year ago.  Last April, I started running regularly to train for the Peachtree Road Race 10K, which is the world's largest 10K foot race with over 55,000 participants every July 4th here in Atlanta. This event/spectacle/celebration made me hooked on running.  I run by my myself most of time.  After work, around 5 pm on the Silver Comet trail or the Chattahoochee River trails or at a park.  But on the weekends I go to this running store in West Buckhead for group runs, mostly because they helped me out with getting the right shoes and they have refreshments afterwards.  It forced me to get up early on Saturday morning instead of staying in bed for an extra couple of hours. Running gives me a sense of accomplishment and the satisfaction of finishing a goal that I set out for myself.  I also love the endorphins, the energy it gives me, and mostly the time for myself.  On my runs I get to do whatever the heck I want: listen to music, the radio, news, or sometimes just out to enjoy nature.  I do some free thinking or self-talk during the long, easy runs or walks.  Yeah, I have a conversation with myself, it's a free form of therapy.  Everyone should try this internal dialogue thing sometimes.  I'm not there yet, but some days I would do speed work, repeats, tempo, fartlek, you know, the usual runner lingo, mumbo jumbo, babble blah blah tech talk BS.
I use running for meditation, relaxation, and physical fitness.  It is as pure and free and simple as it gets.  That's why I run.