Sunday, August 2, 2009

Running

One of the many things that marred my childhood school days was PE class. As the tallest, skinniest and most athletically inept student in the class, it was all trauma for me: basketball, volleyball, gymnastics, swimming (bathing suit?!), soccer.... But the one I always found the most brutal came up first thing at the beginning of the school year: cross-country running. My classmates would leave me behind right at the start, and so I'd drag myself along, alone in the woods or on the field, crampy, tired, humiliated, but forced to finish. It was drudgery. At least with volley ball I could stand uselessly by as the ball hit the floor in front of me. It required very little physical effort. In running I had to do the full, interminable course, no matter how long it took. So after my last mandatory PE class in grade 10 I swore off running for the rest of my existence.

But that was years ago, and now any physical activity I do is of my own volition. My parents have been running for a few years, and they are pushing seventy, so I decided to give it a try. Running is free, and I don't have to go to a special place to do it, and I can look around at different stuff.

Today was my third run, in over a month, which is somewhat less that the three time a week I set out for. My initial three runs have been very, very beginner-level: I run for one minute, then walk to two, for a total of fifteen minutes. By the end of which I am very happy to be finished. The first two times I did It I got a pain in my right foot that lasted for a few days. If my foot starts to hurt after today's run, I may have to quit. I am allowed to after all. I'm not in PE class.

Maybe I'll take up swimming.

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