On Running

Ever since I can remember, I’ve been a runner. Not that I am incredibly good at it, I just have always enjoyed it. Any sports that let me run around, like soccer, I tended to enjoy. Sports like baseball, where you had to sit around and wait for long periods of time, I hated. Activities like crew, where running is barely involved in things outside of training, were misery incarnate.

Running just helps me relax in a way. It clears my mind, letting me think up new solutions to things or plan out my ideas. Even better than that, it helps me get to sleep easier at night, giving me that much more clarity of thought when I wake up in the morning.

Those benefits alone would have given me reason enough to continue enjoying the occasional run, but I tend to get more out of running besides just health benefits and mental cooldown times. There is little more satisfying than to be able to put everything you’ve got into a sprint to the finish; the rush and exhilaration is beyond words. Few experiences compare to taking yourself to the edge of your endurance and ability on a longer run, and then toughing it out to the end; the sense of accomplishment is almost tangible. At the same time, a bad run can ruin an entire day; a failure like that is something I tend to mope about for hours afterward.

Writing and running can share a lot of the same characteristics, and I tend to compare them a lot. When they go well, you almost feel like you are soaring, that your legs hardly touch the ground, and your fingers barely hit the keys. A well written scene and a final sprint can leave you with a glow for the rest of the day, and finishing a story or a long run gives meaning to otherwise dull toil. Stumbling in either sucks the fun out of things, and can be incredibly frustrating.

Recently I’ve been reviving my running habits, after taking far too long of a hiatus. I’ve been finding that it compliments writing perfectly though, and helps get me out in the sun a little. That way I don’t end up turning into a cave dweller or something. So what else do you guys enjoy doing? Any hobbies or habits that grew up alongside writing or robot programming, or am I alone in my crazy running ways? Just wondering. I’ll see you around!

PS My apologies for writing such a late blog post. I wrote quite a bit yesterday on Realm and reviewed some of the comments on Brellan before starting the post. When I started on the post, my head literally started aching with pain, which I took as a sign not to continue. :) I’ll try to be a bit more consistent tomorrow.