“RUNNING!!”

Yesterday I went for a hard, fast 6 miler. Something kinda funny happened about half-way into the run.

As I was running past a middle school, I noticed a man really running hard, “striding it out” as he was coming towards me. He ran with large, bounding strides. I realized he was mentally handicapped (I’m not sure the best way to word that, so I’m sorry if it’s not super PC), and he was just out enjoying a run. I smiled as I met him, but he didn’t notice me - I think he was running hard and trying to show-off for the students filling the sidewalk outside of the school.

A few blocks later, I hit my turn-around point, and turned to head back towards home.

About 1 block past the school, I came upon the same man that was running hard before, only now he was walking quite slow. He was way off to one side of the large sidewalk, and he turned to watch me run up behind him. He was smiling. I smiled and said “hi” as I ran past.

The next thing I know, he’s started running, and he has run past me! He’s keeping my pace, running about 5 feet to the left/front of me. (At this point in my run, I’m running about 6:10 - 6:20 pace.) He’s grinning ear-to-ear, and constantly looking over his shoulder at me. I smiled back.

“How are you?” I ask.

He answers with one word, full of enthusiasm: “RUNNING!!...”

I thought that was a great response! A block later, we came up on someone walking. The man running with me was fading, and I had to quickly jump in front of him to pass the woman who was walking. He laughed, and then stopped to walk. I smiled as I ran off.

I don’t think he meant his statement to be as profound as I’m making it, but I thought about what he said. “Yeah, how bad CAN I be: I’m out on a run! Life must good: I’m taking time out of my day for a run! What cares can I have: I’M OUT ON A RUN!!”

So if you ever ask me “How are you?” don’t be surprised if I respond with “Well, I’m RUNNING, so all is well!!"