How Has Running Changed Your Life?
May 1, 2009 by Bryon Powell · 10 Comments
How’s has running changed your life? I’m not talking about how it may have helped you improve your health, become more confident, or the like. Nope. I want to know if and when your love of running, in whatever form, has been a deciding factor in a major life decision. Did you choose your college because you could run on the cross country team? Have you ended a relationship… or gotten married because of running? Have you ever moved across town… or across the country to be closer to better running grounds? Ever taken or not taken a job based on how it would affect your running? With how much iRunFar readers love to run, I’m sure there are some interesting stories out there. Please share!
Related articles:
- Simplify Your Life A recent change in personal circumstances was a catalyst for me to me to consider change in my life or, perhaps more accurately, changing my life. I’m hoping to get...
- Tagged (Seven Things About Me) I admit, I’ve been a bad, bad blogger, baby. Both my personal and work life’s been crazy for a few weeks now. (For instance, from Monday and Thursday last week,...
- Should Cross Country Running Be Added to the Winter Olympics? We think that cross country running should be added to the Olympic and the winter games, in particular. What do you think?...
Filed under Discussion ·
Bryon Powell is the Editor-in-Chief of iRunFar.com, which he founded five years ago. Also the author of Relentless Forward Progress: A Guide to Running Ultramarathons and a contributing editor at Trail Runner magazine, he's quickly approaching 10 years as an ultrarunner and 20 years as a trail runner. These days he calls Park City, Utah and its trails home.
All posts by Bryon Powell
I enjoy running over my lunch break. I’ve been doing that about two years now, and my running has never been more consistent. Running during the work day has allowed me to free time up for my family. More consistent running; more time with family. It’s a win win situation in my book.
I recently had the fortune to have two competing job offers. Both were attractive opportunities to me, with very similar responsibilities, hours and compensation. One of the primary factors that swayed me to accept my current position was the employer’s proximity to our city’s recreational trail, which is my favorite place to run in our city. The other employer was far, far away from any decent running surroundings and smack dab in the middle of a large, relatively unattractive business park with no sidewalks but plenty of fast-moving traffic.
My current employer’s proximity to a beautiful running area definitely factored into my decision to accept this position.
Chirunner,
While I’ve never done the lunch break run, I have become a frequent run commuter. I can imagine considering my run commute route in choosing a new job or a new place to live within the city. Thanks for sharing. Enjoy running the rec trail during lunch… so much better than sucking exhaust in a business “park!”
I must admit, I did once ‘exit’ a relationship because they didn’t get it. My running is mine, nobody can take it away but me :) I’ve pretty much always been doing it, why on earth would I stop because someone else thinks it isn’t fun?
When I moved to NC after college, for a part-time radio gig, I was working two other jobs to keep my head above water for the time being. However, one of my three jobs kept getting in the way of my daily run, so I quit! That’s even the reason that I gave to my manager for quitting :) Needless to say, he didn’t ‘get it’. Good thing I was offered a full time position at the radio station a week later!
My current job was starting to get in the way of my running awhile back, but knowing it would be unwise to quit I began to restructure my schedule so that everything could work in harmony :) Run-commuting, lunch running, and ass-crack-of-dawn running are the new norm. So far so good!
You could say I have been running since I was 10 months old. As the story goes, I literally ran before I walked.
Ultimately my love of running was a key piece of me leaving the 9 to 5 to start Atayne. One bad experience with a running top was the catalyst in starting a company dedicated to inspiring positive environmental and social change through the power of active lifestyles (http://thestoryofaredshirt.wordpress.com/2008/05/08/the-original-red-shirt/).
Oh absolutely, even at the very beginning of taking up distance running my last year of high school, I had no experience running XC, but made my college decision based on the fact that I got a letter from the Cross Country coach who explained that as a D3 school I’d be on the team, and based on my spring track times, I’d be among the top 5. Plus the campus was filled with trails around pastures and surrounded by parks and quiet roads, perfect for training.
More recently, while looking for a job I purposefully interviewed and accepted a job that uprooted our family from Central Mass to the North Shore of Mass to be closer to trail running clubs and State Parks with miles of fire roads and single track.
Even after getting offered the job we tailored our search for a place to live based on the least amount of time and distance it took to get to a trailhead.
Even today I am looking at the next step professionally and scholarly, and have considered places like Portland, OR or Lynchburg, VA – based on the accessibility to vast trail networks and ultra running communities and clubs. Just typing that seems self-centered, but Ultra Running is my one thing, and sets an example for my young kids. So I see it as more than a passion and a hobby.
Ultimately, I’d love to work for a running friendly company, I am envious of Jeremy with Atayne. I have a degree in English and have often thought of cool stuff like working for Runner’s World or Trail Runner Magazine, but among other aspirations related to life and running, I have been thinking about earning my Psychology degrees to have a flexible schedule to run and coach, or to work in a realm like sports or health psych, where there is some connection to my profession and the sport.
So I guess I really do thinking about running all the time, especially with life decisions!
I ran in high school, then sporadically in college. It’s been a couple of years since graduation and have not gotten back into running. It feels good to be able to push yourself and get better everyday. I try and follow that same philosophy for everything.
My wife and I thought we had our wedding date set. We were going to run the Big Horn 50 then get married the next weekend. We started to print out the save the date cards and tell family when the big day was going to be. But, we thought we should just check with the RD to make sure we had the right date. We did not. So with out any hesitation we changed the save the date cards and the wedding date just so we could run the BH 50. Right then and there I knew I was marrying the right women.
I made a commitment to running around the period when someone couldn’t make one with me. Running keeps me present, in the moment and real.
this was worth a blog post
http://atlantatrails.blogspot.com/2009/05/how-running-has-changed-my-life.html
Hi
I also made a comitment to running when someone I wished to have in my life could not make a comittment with me.