Point Of View

A runner wrote on these pages recently that he ran because he felt better afterward than he would have had he not done it, or words to that effect. To which I would add that I run because I feel better immediately afterward than I would have had I not done it, though on the following day and the day after that I feel worse than I would have had I not done it.

So, you might well ask, if you ultimately feel worse than you would have had you not done it, why then do you do it? Because, silly, I would have felt worse still had I not done it than I feel a day or two after having done it!

It's as I said to my mother when she asked, some 40 years ago, why I jumped out of planes. "Because it feels better than it would if I didn't." I still think airline passengers ought to be issued parachutes, by the way, but that's beside the point, which, of course, is the joy of self-flagellation or running or whatever.

I really probably oughtn't to be doing it any more, given a doctor's prognosis not long ago that I'd be a sure candidate for a plastic knee or two one of these days, but Ben, our black Lab, who doesn't ruminate on whether pain really leads to gain, and if so, how gain should be defined, is, I've found, a joy to run with.

Run behind, I should say, for when we fall in at the rear of the field, once I've taken the de rigueur photo of the start, Ben sets the pace, but it is a pace perfectly in tune, I've found, with my plodding steps. When we go for walks, we're more of a push-me-pull-you given his insatiable nose and his keen attention to squirrels, beguiling creatures that I sometimes let him chase, knowing full well he'll never ever catch one.

When we run we're much more aligned, though Andy Neidnig said, following a recent 5K, that had a fox he'd seen zip across the road 30 seconds behind us done so in front of us, I might not be feeling so euphoric now.

So, in the end, I guess I can say that I feel much better plodding along behind Ben, knowing he's happy just to be running along, than I would were I to be running alone and wondering why.

Jack Graves