Is there something we’ve ever done years ago and disliked it, and found that once we’d given it a chance, it might not actually be that bad? I’m talking about Running again. Yes, the one I didn’t give a second look at in high school, but now, can’t get away from. I’ll admit it’s been a love hate relationship for me, and for most of this relationship, I’ve kept it indoors, in the privacy of a gym or the confinement of a treadmill. It’s almost like I’ve been keeping Running a secret, but lately I haven’t been making an unavailable treadmill an excuse not to run. To be honest, running outdoors has actually been quite enjoyable. So while I was in San Francisco, I decided to take a break from the usual run of the (tread)mill and instead, I ran around Lake Merced, which I haven’t done since I was on the Lowell Girl’s Drill Team in high school. The run is about four and a half miles, and surprisingly, it wasn’t at all what I had remembered it to be. Of course, in high school, running around the lake was never a choice, but rather a “punishment” from the Commander or for better terms a “team building experience” (after not doing something well). Back then, I still felt accomplished after completing the run; but, it almost feels like when we’re kids and we go to Disneyland and it’s this huge, magical place, and when we go again as adults, while it’s still huge, it’s not as gigantic as we remembered it and while it’s still magical, Mickey Mouse doesn’t really have the same star appeal. This might be a bad example, but the point I am trying to get at is that our frame of minds shape our experiences. Through out the run, that used to be a “chore” back then, I did not think about “when this run was going to be over”, “how many miles are left,” or “how tired I was going to be after.” I actually enjoyed the beauty of the lake, reminisced about the great times on the Drill Team, and just ran. Who would have thought I would actually be raving about it running around this Lake Merced?
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