The Reluctant Runner: A Reluctant Farewell to Running

About five months ago, I pulled on my trusty running shoes and took off running on a regular basis for the first time in decades. As you know by now, I embarked on every run reluctantly to the end. I had dreams early on of building myself up to the point where I could go a mile without stopping, and I was able to do that, but my dreams of getting to the point of running a 5K proved to be out of reach. I waited too long to start. At 47, the wear and tear of running proved to be a little too much for my body to handle on a regular basis. If you are in your 20s or 30s and are thinking of running, I'd encourage you to start now and stick with it as long as you can, because the day will come when it will no longer be an option. I say this because running has a lot to teach you. It certainly has taught me a lot over the past five months. Running gave me the gift of discipline. It helped me stretch the boundaries of what I thought was I was capable of and rewarded me with a level of fitness and mental clarity I didn't think I was capable of attaining. I'll never look back across the past five months as time wasted. Instead, all of that work has built a base that will allow me to continue on my fitness journey well ahead of where I would have been if I'd never taken that first step. So what's next? That has been the question I've been pondering over the past couple weeks. I thought about what I enjoyed so much about my workouts. I enjoyed being out in nature. I enjoyed the feeling of pushing myself further. I enjoyed how I felt after I was done. I was reluctant to run, but I've never been reluctant to hike. And now I have the fitness level to be able to go explore on a regular basis instead of needing a week to recover after scaling the mountain trails we're so blessed to have in our region. What's more, trails I used to consider too taxing are now within my reach. Starting next week, this space will be devoted to hiking, and I'll approach it the same way I approached this running column. There are probably a lot of you out there who want to go hiking, but you don't the fear of the unknown is a barrier. How difficult are the trails? Will I run into an obstacle I can't navigate? How long will it take me to complete the hike? And most importantly, what is the payoff at the end of the trail? My plan is to tackle the many trails we're blessed with in our region one by one, offering a full breakdown of difficulty, the sights you'll see along the way and what you need to do to prepare for each journey. And if history is any indication, there will likely be a fair amount of self-deprecating humor along the way. So I hope you'll join me on a new adventure. I'm still going to be hitting the dusty trail - I'll just be taking more time to enjoy the journey. Do you know an amazing hike I need to go on? Share it with me at: dongie@sixriversmedia.com.