I may be ready to call myself a runner again.

Not a fast runner. Or a long-distance runner. But still a runner.

I started running about a year before I started business school. That was 20 years ago. Holy moly, 20 years ago?!

It wasn’t love at first run, far from it. I was a smoker, I worked a lot, I partied a lot and I was seriously out of shape. When it came time to choose between running and smoking, fortunately I chose running.

4 months into business school I ran my first marathon. I surprised myself and qualified for Boston. I have thought of myself as a runner ever since. No matter how many different sports I have competed in, running will always be my first love.

I think it is the simplicity of running that I love so much. You don’t need much. A pair of shoes, some running clothes. A dog (or three or four) helps. You can run anywhere. When I traveled a lot for work, I explored many cities on my early morning runs.

And then I found the trails. Oh, the trails! Trail running, to me, is meditation in motion.

ANYHOW.

It’s been 7 months since my knee self-destructed, with a little help from my beloved, but very large and crazy, dog. It’s been a long road, but a good one. I have learned a lot and hope I’ll be coming back stronger. That’s still TBD, but I’m working on it.

The past month I have made big strides in my running. I’m linking miles (yes, I said miles!) together outside. I did hill repeats with Alexis the other day. Granted, it looked a bit like a Porsche and a Jalopy in a race. We both started at the same spot at the bottom of the hill, we both ran uphill for 1 minute, but we definitely didn’t both end up in the same spot. I tried hard. Just like Puck.

And, perhaps the most amazing news of all, Altra IQ lady gave me a 95 on my treadmill run the other day! I almost fell over. It’s always a bit nerve racking as I wait for her to give me my score. Often I am disappointed. But when I saw 95/100 I couldn’t help but smile. I’m not running long on the treadmill. I have to admit, I really hate running on the treadmill. I do 10 – 15 minutes each time. But it is a good check in and a good way for me to continue to work on form.

Mostly I have been running on snowy back country roads packed down by skiers and snowmobilers. It’s not the smoothest surface, but I figure that’s probably good for me right now; it forces me to use all my accessory muscles to stay on my feet.

When I run on the one dirt road that is plowed, I try to work on my cadence with the metronome. It’s a lot harder to maintain my new-found cadence outside, but I’ll keep at it.

That’s all I can do. Keep on keepin’ on!