I told someone this week that I was a runner. The truth is that I used to be a runner, but life events and the ensuing emotions interrupted my running lifestyle back in 2004. Since then I’ve attempted on occasion to begin again, but without much enthusiasm. I’d see runners from my office window, or later, from a window on campus and reminisce about glory days gone by. (Well, they were never really glory days, but I’ve run my share of races and the glory is in finishing standing up.)

I have a small group of very loyal running friends who have been extremely supportive, trying to help me get going again, and allowing me to wallow when I needed to. I keep track of their accomplishments, personal and running, with an online connection and always revel with them when they reach another goal, but none of it made me actually get off the sofa and start running. Because, you see, I know how hard it is to start from scratch, and I just didn’t want to go through all that pain again.

But this week one of my friends told us she is going to be a group leader to help people train for The Brooksie Way half marathon which is coming up October 5. It’s an inaugural race, named after the son of our county’s County Executive who was killed in a snowmobile accident. More information about the race is here: http://www.thebrooksieway.com.

So this morning I rose early, after a good night’s sleep in my new tent (really, more on that later!) and spent two whole hours convincing myself to get out there and start running again. My friend is training with her group tonight doing a 3 mile run, walking a minute, running a minute. Heck. I can run one minute! So I made myself do it, and it was actually fun. I’ll pay for it tomorrow. Today I’m going out to plant a new peony, do some weeding, look for a source of wood chips, practice with the dog and mow the lawn.

Freedom is a wonderful thing.