Running is a part of our consciousness and subconsciousness all through life. We run as children chasing kites and ice-cream trucks, and run away from irate parents. We run as teenagers in our sports. We run as adults to stay in shape, and as elderly people, we run after toddlers that suddenly escape our protection. We run in nightmares. We run in happy dreams for the exuberance of pure freedom. We run to catch subways, buses and planes. We run to meet our lovers. Our clocks run fast, or slow, and we run late, or early. My running stories capture some of the ways we run. A kindergartener chases his mother for an entire mile, so he can walk her to the grocery store. A high school track athlete runs to win the heart of a classmate. A college coed wakes up late for her final exam and runs frantically across campus to preserve her grade point. Another young woman runs to escape a rapist. An elderly man watches joggers sweep by on a country road from his seat in a wheelchair, holding in his heart all the wonderful miles he once ran himself.
