Running exposes your body in a way that can make you feel very vulnerable. You’re out on the side of a road, barely covered by a few scraps of fabric. You are bared to the elements, the judgments of your solitary mind, the gaze of others. If you’re not running comfortably, you can feel disjointed…
Month: January 2020
Weather is Wilderness
The wind started in earnest around dawn yesterday and hasn’t let up for a minute. In the beginning it was warm, but it was icy by nightfall. It brought us snow squalls and rolled full garbage bags across streets. It sent sheets of plywood wheeling through the air like playing cards flicked from a magician’s…
Recommended: Running Slowly
I only overcame my childhood antipathy to running by starting out slowly—so slowly that the stitches in my side that had been the bane of my childhood didn’t even wake up from their slumber, so slowly that I’m not sure I broke a sweat, so slowly that people didn’t think a thing about asking me…
Running Abroad
I never learned how to be a stranger somewhere, never learned how to be a tourist. My family was obsessed with being where we belonged, so we never went anywhere we didn’t have a familial claim to. I hadn’t noticed this shortcoming in me until I first went abroad—which I didn’t do until after college,…
Recommended: Foam Rollers
(A weekly note to save you from suffering the pains and indignities I’ve endured) One of running’s best features is its simplicity—that you can do it anywhere, any time, with no special equipment or facilities. I’ve even had moderately satisfying short runs in Blundstones and jeans (though I’m not recommending that). If I could have…
Why This Site (and Newsletter)
I love to run. This fact surprises me so much that it took me years even to acknowledge it. For a long time, I made up justifications for doing it, claimed that my runs were serving some higher purpose. My mental health depended on it, or I’d committed to race for a charity and had…