The Sickness and the Cure

Sometimes running is the sickness. Sometimes running is the cure. Sometimes it’s both.

In anticipation of the marathon I’m running on Sunday, I looked at photos from past years. This one from 2015 brought me up short:


This pre-race candid captured me totally lost in thought, but that’s not the face of someone getting into the zone. Beyond helping me decompress after a long day, collect my thoughts, or just have fun, this marathon was tasked with helping me through missing someone special away at basic training.

Running was definitely the cure that day. 

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I swore I’d never get Twitter, but…

I like to think that I’m a well-rounded, reasonably interesting person. I read contemporary literature as well as classic literature (I’m currently tackling Moby Dick a second time, hoping to get something different out of it now that I’m a bit older). I read non-fiction books. I like to have in-depth discussions about books. I watch all sorts of TV shows, such as: Breaking Bad, Chopped, Myth Busters, Family Guy, and Jeopardy. I’m a long-suffering fan of Washington DC’s NFL team.  I play slowpitch and fastpitch softball. I work out at a Crossfit-type gym and a conventional gym. I’m in a healthy relationship. I have a dog. I like to travel. I love trying new restaurants.

And oh yeah, I run.

Despite having all of those other interests/hobbies/things going on, running is one of the top things I think about, at least when I’m not running. When I’m running, I either go headphone-free and do some quality thinking about other things, or I get lost in my audiobook. But when I’m not running, the ticker tape in my brain is often RUNNING RUNNING RUNNING.

With a solid 10″ of snow on the ground in the DC metro area, today was a snow day for me, which means lots of thinking about running, and because I’m not able to treadmill, no actual running.

So to stave off total cabin fever madness, I’m dipping my toe into the online running community to see if it’s as warm and welcoming as the in-person running community can be. I’ve created a Twitter account and a YouTube account, so starting soon you can connect with me in both of those places via @HopeTheRunner and HopeAgainstHopeRunning.