Postage from Courtney

Courtney, whenever I think of you, I think of your adventures. You seem to be everywhere at once! You don’t know this, but not long after you told me you were training for a marathon, I decided to take up running.

I HATE running.

I hate everything about it  –  the mind-over-matter, all the jostling of the wobbly bits, I mean, the pavement pounding is just hellish  –  but most of all, I was irritated by what I perceived to the overly zealous nature of all the runners I know.

I’m not proud to admit this, but there it is.

(I’m sure you’re not one of them.)

Here’s the rub:  I am a survivor, and yes, like you wrote in your postcard, I AM a dreamer! I do love a good challenge. So at 46, I decided to try running. At first, it was only a few minutes at a time. I thought I’d never make it past 90 seconds. Then a quarter of a mile, then a half. I went along like this, mile by mile, mostly hating it, occasionally liking it, one day even loving it a little, until I did my first 5K.

There is a photo of me smiling at the end of that race, and while I don’t look particularly zealous (in fact, I look very red-faced and exhausted), I do look HAPPY.

It’s been raining all day in Philadelphia, and look – there’s the sun! and whoa, the dog needs some fun, and hey, there are my running shoes by the door…

“Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.” — Helen Keller

Publications

Read my latest essay in ENTROPY Magazine.

Postage

Subscribe