Wild Running

When I was in college, I was crazy about running.  I was never a very good athlete, certainly never good enough to participate on a college team, but it was my escape and I loved it.  As my schedule became more demanding, I began to wake up at 5:00 or 5:30 in the morning to get my daily exercise, winter or summer, rain or snow or clear sky.  I found that there was something oddly enchanting about the silent, frosty mornings that I met between November and March.

It's been years since I had that routine.  I'm discovering that one of the most puzzling challenges raising a very young child is finding a way to exercise in the winter.  Fed up with the handful of cheesy televised workouts through which I usually rotate, I decided, this morning, to attempt to recover the daily ritual that was so dear to me a few years ago.

I have to admit that I'm not in the shape I once was.  My legs aren't accustomed to carrying me the way they did before and when I was doing this sort of thing every morning, my lungs didn't mind it.  Now the jolt of the cold alongside the increased demands of my muscles awakens the usually-dormant exercise-induced asthma, limiting how far I can push myself.

Nevertheless, as I pushed myself around and around the track - a far cry from the mountain trails and twisting streets I used to chase - covered from head to ankles to reddened knuckles with layers of fabric, the enchantment returned.  I had the clear, cold stars all to myself and from my ear buds, music kept time with my steps.

I'm not saying that I recommend this routine.  I'm not entirely sure that I'll be willing to drive myself to do it again soon, but there is something unique about it, and beautiful.  There's some element of insanity and some feeling of power, even as I'm all but shivering between sweat and wintry cold.  And the music is...exquisite.  Running out there on my own reminded me of a passion for music that I had long since forgotten.  The cold, the dark, the solitude, the movement or the wildness - or maybe a combination of all of them - gives the music a whole new dimension.