Have you noticed people seem to have VERY strong opinions on the subject of running? They seem to either love it or loathe it. You are either a soft flower or a prickly cactus. There is no room for in between. It actually ranks among the topics of: politics, religion and specific sports teams in how divisive it can be. But I actually believe that there are more people who are in the middle than is at first apparent. I mean most people used to like running.
Kids love running! Have you been to a playground lately? I take my kids to playgrounds and its like I’m in the middle of a stampede! It’s pure madness. They take off and are sprinting around or asking me to go home. There is no in between. And I know it’s not just my kids! Every kid I see at the playground is the same way. I’m actually not sure how we come home without any broken bones. How did we get from this pure joy in motion to “if you see me running, you better too because there is a bear back there”. Full disclosure, my kids have pretended that one of them is a bear and the other one is the person running away from said bear…this might explain some of the running at the playground.
My first thought is to question WHY people have such feelings about running. I mean, think about cycling, kayaking, hiking, rock climbing or even roller skating! If you participate in one of those activities you probably love it but the people that don’t are just “meh”. They don’t tell you things like “you’ll blow out your knees!” or ask “why would you do that!?” for any of them. But when it comes to running…let the anti-memes begin!
Maybe it’s because running is often used as a punishment in gym classes or sports teams. You’re late for practice? You get to run a lap for every minute you’re late. My Dad did this with push-ups. If you belched at the table or talked back it was “drop and give me 10 push-ups” (REAL push-ups mind you! And yes, he was in the military). One day he and I were going back and forth and I’m pretty sure I did close to 300 push-ups that day… And you know what? I still don’t like push-ups. Love you Dad :) So I can say I’m pretty sympathetic to someone who has recurring memories of running laps around a practice field not feeling like running is their thing.
Or possibly it’s because people feel guilty if they don’t run. “It’s easy”, “All you have to do is walk out your front door”, “It’s the cheapest sport, all you need is a pair of tennis shoes”.
Historically people seem to get defensive when they are avoiding doing something they feel like they should be doing but aren’t. You know, like the pile of laundry that isn’t folded yet…I’ve been busy ok… But unlike laundry, and I know there are plenty of diehard runners out there who won’t believe this but running isn’t a fact of life.
True story. Certain things are facts or facets of life: laundry, dishes, bills, gravity. They happen whether you want them to or not. Running is optional. Technically exercising at all is becoming optional. We can leave that to a whole other blog thought. And just like some people will like the color green over yellow some people will like volleyball over running. And that is great! As Mike Tarrolly said “movement is medicine”.
I’m thinking it would be better for all of us if we were able to be a little less extreme. Why do we have to be in either camp? Why’s it always gotta be “team no holiday music before thanksgiving” or “team 364 days til Christmas”? By that I mean “team run or die” or “team run and die”. I find I am somewhere in the middle of it all. I have favorite running routes but I won’t be an unholy terror if I don’t get to run on them. Let’s open the discussion to people who want to commiserate on their run shoes being “phased out” but who also don’t have any interest in doing track workouts every Thursday.
P.S. I miss you Brooks Pureflow 2!!!!
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