I remember reading a quote that said that every healthy human is capable of running. I had trouble accepting this until I heard that my nearly blind father had finished a 10k without any training. He is very absent-minded, and apparently agreed to run in a company event without realizing it.
My brother was saying how he plans for him and my parents to do long-distance runs together.
"We could be like a family running team. They have those family marathons."
"What about me?"
"uh..."
"I'm family too."
"You could hold the sign? Pass out water?"
sigh.
In high school, it was mandatory for us to run a mile every week for gym class. The only way to pass that part of the running segment was to run a mile in 10 minutes. According to my gym teacher this was "impossible" not to be able to do. You can walk it in 10 minutes! You can crawl it in 10! he'd shout at me.
In the class of 35, I was always last, well not always... The competition for the last slot was between three people: me, a girl who had just moved to our school from Africa and never taken gym before, she ran while wearing a veil and a pant/dress thing which was like a long version of a skort, and a girl who had narcolepsy. The girl with narcolepsy wasn't even required to take gym, but she wanted to do it anyway on principle.
So I could understand my brother's hesitation.
"I'm just not a runner. Not everyone can run."
Then he showed me a link on people with cystic fibrosis who run marathons.
it was amazing.
-.-
Running is one of those things I see as very necessary, ever since I've been aware of natural selection. I don't want to be the slow antelope. I have a fear that one day I'll have to run to catch the last plane out of disaster, or run long enough not to be up caught in an ocean wave.
It's kind of like my fear of not being able to pull my own body weight. If I was dangling helplessly from a sky-rise and the only thing I need to be able to do is bend my elbows so I can just ... pull myself ... ok no. death fall.
So a few days ago, I read H Murakami's book on marathon running and writing, "What I talk about when I Talk About Running." Besides being struck by his discipline, he runs at dawn for a couple hours and then sits down to write yet another book; I was struck by the way he described running. He made it sound so peaceful and liberating, so I decided I should try yet again.
The only place to run right now is straight up a mountain. It's very steep, I read some background which said that running uphill is actually "easier" than running on a flat surface. Well, apparently not.
I tried to jog but mostly ended up trudging and gasping for air and at the view (which was quite beautiful). It was peaceful and liberating... although not really for the reasons of running.
Must try again.
