One winter, I was on a short-term reporting contract in Victoria. After 18 winters in Nova Scotia and a couple more in Toronto, the season on southern Vancouver Island was a revelation that spoiled me, never a fan of the cold, for good. During those snowless months, I rented a room in a house near Oak Bay, where I saw the spandex-and-sneakers souls gliding along the scenic shoreline, the snowy peak of Mount Olympus crowning over the ocean from distant Washington State.
It was enough to convince me to shell out for a pair of fancy sneakers (followed soon by fancy running pants, socks, shirt, sports bra, more shirts, more socks, more pants, more bras, more sneakers) and turn me in a runner for the next 13 years.
People close to me know I run, but that’s mostly a function of security. I don’t post my routes on Facebook, I don’t announce my times. I don’t have the taut, beanpole look of a long-distance runner. In South Africa, I had runner-coworkers whose achievements left me awed and admiring — and with a quiet certainty that I would forever be the slow and plodding shuffle-step jogger with teenage asthma embedded in my lungs. Once, in Toronto, I joined a Running Room training group. The very first session was a 10k in hilly parts of the Beach and I came as close to an asthma attack as I’ve ever been as the horrible reality dawned on me that I was running, I was running up a hill, I was last in the group and, most notably, I couldn’t breathe.
I dropped out of that group but over a decade later, I’m still running — at least in the fair weather, with my roots well established in that Victoria winter. I admire from afar those who slap fancy grips on their shoes and stay outside all year, when I’m happily doing sprints on the treadmill and communing with dumbbells.
Before treating cialis pills for sale acute symptoms of erectile dysfunction in men, the level of toxins should be lowered from the body. pfizer viagra without prescription Over 90% of these recount elections resulted in a recount. The doctor will also consider cheapest cialis 20mg medical conditions that are known to cause erectile dysfunction in many men. It depends, to a large extent, on the genetics, climate and the levitra line lifestyle.
Running has kept me moving, in a dozen or more cities, towns and villages. I almost always run alone. I like hills. I’ve had wonderful runs and terrible runs and simple, steady days in between. I’ve stopped for weeks when sprained ankles and aching shins get the better of me. I’ve stopped for months when life stepped in. I don’t have sinewy calves and technical running tops and personal bests, but I have the consistency of years.
And soon, I’ll have Spring and it will be me and the road or the trail, and the horse flies who chew my shoulder blades and deer who look at me skeptically before skittering off, drivers who give me a wide berth and a friendly wave or speed up and race to get to their turn before I force them to wait with my crossing. I’ll get caught in the rain and reddened by the sun but I’ll keep going.