Six Miles of Unadulterated Exultation

of the human spirit over fear

a runner in the NYC Marathon

I just got back from running six miles through freezing rain. my stride sputtered on the slushy roads and my sweatshirt gained 5 pounds of water. there weren’t even many cars on the road – and I didn’t meet any other runners.

why in the world was I running?

I asked myself this question several times throughout the 6 miles. was I a sucker for self-inflicted pain? was I trying to prove something to somebody? was I driven by some obscure motive? the only answer I could come up with during the 45 minutes of slush-trudging was simply this: I believe in something. and whatever that something is, believing in it calls me out of my semi-warm house and dry clothes, out into the weather to run.

what I believe in has slowly begun to take shape in my mind, and each time I run, I feel I am getting closer to my belief.

Dawn and I talked about how much we love to ice skate, because for us, it’s the closest we’ve come to dancing: the gliding movements of our bodies over the ice following the melodies and brush strokes of the soul’s delight; the swirling mesh of body, soul and spirit; synchronization, a flow of movement, a joining of rhythm.

distance running for me teaches me this possibility of joining bodily experience with careful concentration, with rugged emotional processing, with the weight of philosophical pondering, with the simple joy of existence; of breathing and moving and being alive, of striving.

running is my prayer.

Brooke & Jesse run to play "tap the ring"