Why I run...

Some days, I run to spend time with my Grandpa Postma. He went blind when my mother was still in high school, and I never knew him as a man who could see the world through the same eyes I did, but I loved how he saw the world through his hands. We have pictures at my parents' house of my grandpa when he was a dashing younger man. And when I run, sometimes that young man comes with me. I always imagine my Grandpa Postma as the kind who would run just a step ahead of me to keep me on my toes. He'd chat easily even when I'd be coughing and wheezing. And he'd smile. He had a great smile. He's been gone for a few years now, but sometimes I can spend time with him when I run.

Some days I run because my best friend's mom got a double-lung transplant. Yes, a double-lung transplant. At one point, my best friend and I were talking about her having to spend her last Christmas with her mom. Then, a miracle happened for us all, and she was on her way to the hospital for a surgery that would save her life and enrich ours. Two months post-surgery, she was running a ten-yard stretch of the Chicago marathon with Jen and I. And now, when we race, she still will run parts of the course with us while cheering us on. I run for that.

Some days I run because even though it pains me to pull on the shoes, I know I'll feel better when I'm done.

Some days, it's because Coach Lawton, my soccer coach in high school, tried to tell me in the most delicate way possible that he would like to cut me from the team because I hadn't run off the weight that he'd wanted me to, but that he couldn't because otherwise he wouldn't have a goalie. 

Some days, it's because I can feel the natural instinct to run pulsing through my veins and can't imagine doing anything else. On those days, I run high on my toes.

Some days, it's because people are expecting me to, and I feel a sense of responsibility to those people. I've convinced a few people to try out running, and if I don't run, I feel like I'm letting them all down (or giving them an excuse to skip their run...and I definitely don't want to do that).  

Today, I ran because running can be hard. And I like to run when running is hard. I like doing the hard stuff. To quote Tom Hanks in A League of Their Own "Of course it's hard! The hard's what makes it good."