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St. Cloud State University
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Commentary
Running offers refreshing break
By Eric O'Link
Published:
Monday, September 29, 2003
Eric O´Link -- Staff Essay
I used to hate running.
But the noon hour yesterday found me tightly lacing up my running shoes, grabbing my portable radio and a jacket and heading out the door.
I walk down my street to Ninth Avenue, cross it and step up my pace down 18th Street. I pass several office buildings, a woodsy stretch of the street and then past the old airport hangars.
I'm getting my rhythm now. Breathing long, deep and just hard enough to make my chest burn a little. I cross into Whitney Park, quiet except for the icy wind howling across its empty fields.
I turn on to the asphalt path and settle in to the pound, pound, pound rhythm of my feet on the blacktop. Clouds sail past above, not sure whether they want to be white or gray. They let the sun peek through to cast shadows behind the soccer goals.
I follow the path, curving west now between two lines of not-so-old trees. I marvel at the azure color of the sky where the clouds let me see it.
My radio gives me my own private concert of mostly '80s music, somehow fitting for this almost-timeless morning. I breathe the air, listen to the music and revel in the moment.
This is the first time that I have been running in months. I don't run in May because I have terrible spring allergies. I figure that gulping in lung-fulls of super-pollinated spring air is probably not the best thing for my extra sensitive nose.
I don't run in the summer because summer has this terrible habit of unmotivating people in the worst - and yet best - way. Besides, it's hot and humid a lot of days around here in the summertime. Hot and humid are an icky combination for a run - we're talking repressive, not refreshing.
That's not to say that I couldn't run in the cool mornings or evenings, I'm just unmotivated, like I said.
But fall is here now and I'd like to get rid of my slight softness around the edges. If I still lived on campus, that would be no problem; I'd take off, head up to Division, cross the river, go south down Riverside and back to campus across the University Bridge.
Now, however, I live more than two miles from campus. The bridge route is too far away, so I had to find a new one. Since I live just a couple of blocks from the Whitney Fields - the former St. Cloud airport - that seemed like the most obvious place.
Then it was just a matter of kicking myself in the butt to go out and RUN. And that has taken almost a week. But yesterday morning, I decided, was my day to get back into my routine.
So I did.
Rounding the far side of Whitney, I'm starting to get those familiar feelings: legs that are slightly sore, a tight chest, burning throat and an annoyingly stuffy nose.
I look down at my feet, moving parallel, forward, forward, forward almost like they have a mind of their own. I can feel the sun's warmth on my face, the wind's bitter whisper in my ears and the fiery heat of burning calories building up inside me.
As I finish my trip around the Whitney circuit path, the whole world becomes feeling and color. The exhilarating pain that I feel coursing through my body. The blinding light of the sun burning through wispy clouds. Faded black pavement below glides beneath my white-as-snow shoes. Hot and cold blur together as I run my last strides back across Ninth Avenue. I finish with a cool down walk back to my house.
I never went running until one day two years ago. All of a sudden I had this urge to get exercise and running seemed like a great option. So I went. And I realized that not only was it not as bad as I had once thought, it was actually fun. It gave me a chance to unwind, de-stress, channel my energy into pure physical output and be alone with my thoughts for 25 minutes.
It was a welcome break in my day and, aside from my summer slacking, I'm getting addicted.
Pretty good, I think, for a guy who used to despise running.
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