I had an interesting conversation with my friends last night (these are the winners of both the Most Likely To Be the First Friends To Visit Me in California and The First Friends To Visit Me in California awards) about the nature of running. The question was about how one views the sport of running. Is it a team sport of camaraderie and friendship or a competative sport of hunting off the next person ahead of you in the pack? I countered that running has always been a solo activity for me. While I could appreciate the (theoretical -- given my speed) camaraderie and the potential (again theoretical) competition, neither of those things ever motivated me. I was always in a race against myself.
This brings us back to another chicken/egg question: did my running make me a loner or did my lonerishness make my running?The whole conversation began because I was musing about the reason why I did not undertake an event until after I left Portland. In Portland, I have friends who do running things and there are many running things to do. Everyone, it seems, runs in Hood to Coast. There was the time Devo (yes, Devo) played at a Nike 10k race. There's the Beat the Burnside race, and those are only the ones I can think of off the top of my head. Portland is an drive town. So why now? My theory is that it is exactly because I *didn't* have anyone to run with.
Running with people might provide some conversation, but it also comes with pressure to run a certain route at a certain time and the pressure to keep a pace. I perform well under many kinds of pressure, but I don't court it in my fun time. I want to be able to succeed or fail on my own, without worrying about involving other peole in my almost certain embarassment. Of course, now that I have started running, it will be much easier to keep up with it, even if I do end up growing a circle of running friends.
All of this is to say that I ran 4.5 miles on Tuesday. I did not go out today, but I walk for a total of 40 minutes because my car was in the shop. I have it back, but it is still not fixed although the man seemed to think it was. I am not impressed.
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First of all, thanks for the call. We were at track practice. Gym time... a wonderful thing...
Growing up in B-town as we did, I think we learned running as an individual sport, competing against yourself. We rarely had more than the minimum to make a team, and were never dominant. It was about personal best. Which, as a life lesson, is probably the way it should be.
Hope the car issues solve themselves soon. Not cool.
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