Let's Talk About Running

"Cardio wins Crowns."

His Grace Brennan says this.  It is my new current mantra when it comes to running.  That and "I will fence better."  Even if it were in the realm of possibility, I don't want to win a crown.  Actually, I am indifferent to winning things in general but I do want to be a better fencer.  So cardio.  Stamina.  Being able to run into battle and stay in battle.  That is the goal.

Running is something I really like.  I don't dream about flying.  I never have.  My "flying" dreams are about me running, fast and sure, from one place to another.  In some ways it feels as impossible as flying.  Still, it can't hurt to try.

Once, at Tales of Valor, I was playing a young woman who was going back and forth between the players and another NPC.  I don't know what possessed me, but I did this by running.  I was nimbly jumping over rivulets in the paths, up hill none the less.  I remember being a bit out of breath but it was thrilling and almost like my dreams. It made me start thinking about trail running but as I looking into it, I realized that I was likely too slow and too out of shape to keep up with any of the groups in the area.

In my younger years, I was tormented by the Presidential Fitness Challenge.  I failed at it every single year.  I remember one year, it was both picture day and the day we were being tested on sprinting.  I wanted so badly to pass the sprint test and tried so hard.  I ran as hard I could all the way past the finish line and stumbled and tumbled to a stop. I put everything my little, chubby, fourth grade legs could put in. I still didn't pass. 

Anyway, all of this is to say I am running again.  I am doing what I call "smol runs".  I am putting on my gear, bluetoothing up my headphones, and going out to run short intervals.  I have done this three times in the past week.  This morning when my brain said, "ugh, you have to run today," I told it, "no, I get to run today."  I am never going to win a Presidential Fitness Challenge or a Crown, or a fencing tournament, but maybe I will be better.  Maybe I will learn to fly.