Running and Writing

After a couple of weeks away helping my daughter with her new baby, I’m back home in Vermont, writing and running almost every day. My route is greening up with new leaves on the trees and fresh grass, and the flowers of a northern New England May are coming into bloom. We’ll have lilacs before too long! The new layer of cow manure on the fields can be a bit hard to take for a gasping runner, but I’ve learned to cover my mouth.


Running along the river


Sometimes I think about a work in progress when I run. I don’t try to, it just happens. For the most part, though, I listen to a podcast during the first couple of miles of warm-up and then simply tune into my surroundings. The sounds of the river, the stream, the birds, the smells of grass, flowers, mud and, yes, cow manure.


Along the OttauquecheeI started running again last year after a long hiatus. In a burst of New Year’s energy and optimism, I’d signed up for the Covered Bridges Half Marathon here in Vermont. It’s held the first Sunday in June and it seemed like a good idea in December. But I couldn’t just show up on race day expecting to run 13.1 miles. So, in January, I started training by running for a minute.


That’s right. A minute.


As a writer, I’m tuned in to the power of incremental progress. A novel starts with Page 1, Chapter 1. Over the next eight weeks, I turned my one minute of running into 30 minutes. Not bad but it still wasn’t 13.1 miles. Next step was to dive into a 12-week novice half-marathon training program. There were setbacks with weather, injuries, illness, ice and heat, but I kept at it right up until race day.Cows on my run in Vermont


I’d never run a race much less a half-marathon. I had no idea what I was doing but everyone else did! I got through it, finishing without collapsing, my modest goal for the day. In the process of those months, I discovered I love to run. When I hit hurdles with a work-in-progress, I remember how my one minute in mid-January turned into 13.1 miles on June 7. Sometimes we just have to keep going, one step at a time.


Happy reading!


Carla

2 likes ·   •  3 comments  •  flag
Share on Twitter
Published on May 11, 2016 13:59
Comments Showing 1-3 of 3 (3 new)    post a comment »
dateUp arrow    newest »

message 1: by Joe (new)

Joe Wow! I needed that, Carla. Have a tendency to try to do, too, much too fast. After reading your blog I took a deep breath, passed out (just kidding) and slowed this train down a bit. Thank you, Carla!


message 2: by Carla (new)

Carla Neggers Ah, I know what you mean. If I'd started by running even three miles, I'd have quit early on. Ha. Good luck to you! The incremental training also helped me with the "mind" part of increasing running time and mileage.


message 3: by Sally (new)

Sally A good lesson we all can learn from. :)


back to top