Runner's High

I had a lot of false starts in trying to get into the habit of running every day. My dad's a runner, and he's been encouraging me for most of my adult life to take up the sport/hobby. I was on the Track team in high school in my Senior year, and I ran occasionally in college and in my 20s, but it wasn't until I moved to Los Angeles in 2001 that I really became a runner. I guess it was the warm weather, which enabled me to run pretty much every day. I averaged about 3 miles a day (and still do), and it quickly got to the point that I'd feel bad if I missed a day of running. Up until that point, it was a chore to make myself run each day.

When I moved back up to the Seattle area in 2003, I still ran, although it required a bit more motivation, what with the cooler weather and all the rain the region gets. But before long, I found a new motivation: working through story points. There's something about the increased blood flow or heart rate or something ... but whatever it is, if I set off on my run with a specific story problem in mind, I almost always work it out on the run. It enables me to see things in a different way, or from a different angle or something. It's really satisfying, and pretty amazing when you think about it -- the way the mind is unlocked through that kind of exercise. I still have a bit of a hard time getting myself out on the road when it's dark and rainy out, though...