Or... If we run through the forest, or the arroyo, or the town and we don't track it with GPS, or post it to Strava, or even calculate our minutes per mile, did it really happen? Does it even count?
Running has become such a tangled community of one with the many. There are occasional group runs and when we post our activities to social media we have the potential to make new friends and maybe new actual running groups as opposed cyber groups. Still so much of running is a solo pursuit, though. We have our various schedules and paces and goals and so almost by default we are sent out into the running world alone most of the time - but not really quite alone anymore. What used to be secret, quiet, dark early mornings alone are now so often shared with our "friends." Some of these people we may see on a regular basis and some of them we might have never even met. How much of our running are we doing for them and how much are we doing for ourselves? Do we ever run unplugged? Or without headphones... or without blogging it!
Running just for running... running on the land... for joy, for fun... for the feeling of being a human running... footfall, footfall, footfall... in nature, on earth... with the spirit... with god...
2 comments:
Isn't all you said the irony. Way back when, I would post my miles and a short narrative on bike journal dot com. I still do that, but also post the video on my my blog, facebook, twitter and five other Facebook groups I joined. If the video is not online within twelve hours, I get comments and e-mails questioning if it will be posted soon. Seems everyone wants to be a stahhh.
It's not personal and private any more. Our lives, however mundane, are for the world to see and judge.
Running for just running (and even more so, cycling without Strava???!!!) - that does seem to be an experience of the past, a bit like kids playing for just playing - does that ever happen anymore? That sense of connectivity is great, at times, but at a certain point, you have to wonder about it too, and how much do we drive ourselves or is there something else that pushes us out the door?
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