I love to run. There is truly no better feeling than stepping outside to embark on a run with your friends — except maybe the feeling I get when the run is over.
My love for running was born in high school. I needed to fill an athletic requirement and settled on running distance for my high school’s indoor and outdoor track and field team. At first, I definitely had a bittersweet relationship with the sport. Although I really enjoyed practices with my team — fist bumps after tough workouts, gossip sessions and post-practice 7/11 slurpee runs — participating in meets gave me crippling anxiety that I was never able to totally overcome.
At track meets, one’s individual performance is so measurable and also very obvious to those who are watching. The pressure and anxiety of stepping up to the line before hearing the gun shot while your teammates, family and coach watch you run four painful laps around the track is not something I miss. Even now, just thinking about those meets brings me to that anxious headspace, provoking a sick feeling of impending doom in my stomach.
However, once I got to college, running was no longer tainted with such pressure. I initially put my Hokas back on in the hopes of making friends in the beginning of my first year. After hearing about free Bodo’s after the Run with Jim, I was sold. Partaking in Run with Jim is what first showed me that running can be fun and relaxed, two adjectives I would have never associated with it during my time on the track team. Here, running was a space to socialize, and getting exercise was just an outcome, not the main priority.
Additionally, while I appreciated the newfound independence and flexibility that my college schedule allotted, I realized that I missed the structured workout schedule that high school sports had offered me, so I decided to join the club running team. I was excited at the prospect of meeting some other runners and knew that being a part of this organization would introduce me to students I wouldn’t have crossed paths with otherwise.
The team helped me get my footing — no pun intended — at the University. I even used the routes I learned during my first few practices and created my own running schedule, which I still use pretty much daily. Although my time on this team was relatively short-lived, I still wave to people I met there when I pass by them on Grounds, which makes the University feel a little bit smaller.
One day in an introductory psychology lecture, I was able to finally break through surface-level small talk with the girl I sat next to when we discovered our mutual interest in running. Immediately, she invited me to come on a run with her. I happily agreed despite us being mere steps away from perfect strangers, and little did I know that that first run would soon lead to us becoming practically inseparable.
During weeks where I would otherwise not be able to fit in a hangout, our scheduled runs give us a set hour to debrief anything and everything, and we honor this commitment each week without fail.
Last fall, the two of us even enlisted a group of enthusiastic friends to run the Charlottesville half-marathon together. We spent the first few months of our second year diligently training, and although I was reluctant to wake up each day at 7 a.m. to run 10 miles before classes, thanks to my girls, it wasn’t so bad after all. When it came time to cross the finish line hand-in-hand, I knew without a doubt that each chilly morning was worth it.
Fast-forward to today, we have plans to run the Charlottesville Ten Miler this spring and are even considering the Virginia Credit Union River City Half Marathon. I am so thankful that running has jump-started and continues to strengthen this friendship.
While I love the opportunities running gives me to connect with others around Grounds, perhaps the most important relationship it has facilitated is the one with myself. As I’ve developed as a runner, I’ve learned to value the way that running immerses me in one time and place, allowing me to take in sights and sounds that I would otherwise take for granted.
When I reflect on my journey with running, I often think back to a conversation I had while on a hike in Wyoming. A guide explained to me that, while hiking, you are forced to examine the landscape in front of you and then consciously decide where to place your foot. In my daily life, filled with assignments, meetings and a plethora of other obligations, running never fails to ground me, reminding me of the bigger picture rather than the little things that tend to cloud my vision. Running truly keeps my feet — off — the ground and my head on my shoulders.
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