Defining One's Relationship with Running

                    I am in love. I described running to a friend a few days ago as my new baby. It consumes all my free time, my reading time, my projects have all been tossed aside as I explore this new art and learn about all the possible races I could do in the future. But as I come to know more and more about running and what it means to other people, besides me, I find myself feeling a bit jealous that there are so many others that also feel a deep connection to the sport. I first, I felt threatened by this and wondered if perhaps this was not for me, for my relationship with running seemed very different than any other runner. At first, I felt compelled to almost define my relationship with the sport through their eyes and would catch myself getting lost in what they found meaningful or important. This experience, as annoying as it may be to be in this in-between stage, has been quite helpful in forcing to help me further, and more strongly define my own relationship with the sport. In trying to define this relationship, I have had to reflect and figure out what parts of the running world speak to me and what parts do not. For instance, I am not about speed, I am not about following my heart rate religiously, I am not a purist who think the sport is getting 'watered down'. What I do want from running are the long distances, the hours of 'me' time it provides during the weekends in which I can let my mind invent, wonder and imagine. The more and more I define to myself what I love about the sport the more I make it more genuinely mine and the more I value and fee less threatened by other people's intimate relationship with the sport.