The Blessings of Running

1. Running is a physical memory. It is like remembering how to swim, to walk, to ride a bicycle. Unlike reading books and studying for exams, physical memories stick with you for a longer time. While running along Lake Washington, in Africa, and in China the physical details, the heat, the road, the smells, the sky will be remembered a lot longer than conversations or visits to tourist sites. There is a memory in the body that is triggered every time I go running flashes of climbing the hill from Fremont to Queen Anne, or following goat paths in the middle of the flat land of Africa flow through my mind. By running in every place I have lived or visited, it is like having a photograph album contained in my muscles.

2. Running makes me feel better about my body image and health. Even if I feel a bit over weight, running gives me the excuse that because I am exercising my body is fine the way it is.

3. Instead of getting frustrated and angry because no one showed up to my class for the 2nd week in a row, I can just feel at peace and feel what the other Chinese teachers feel, happy that they don't have to teach today. Running takes away my tension and gives me those happy endorphin hormones.

4. The soreness of muscles due to running remind me that I am alive.