This week I wanted to post on a different type of subject. I am not going to tell you about everything I did this week, for multiple reasons. First, I did not do anything too out of the ordinary this week and second, I am not sure you want to hear about every single thing I do every week. That could get quite tedious for you to read, and I know that this blog is not just about what I’m doing abroad, but how I feel about being abroad in general. The result: this week I want to talk about running in London.
I am a runner. Now, please don’t all of the sudden picture me as the kind of person that has 0% body fat, is always training for marathons and 30,000K’s (hyperbole), and has to run every day or they have convulsions. If you do, you are very mistaken. I am a runner in the sense that I enjoy running most every day. I never have a set distance, but I am always pushing myself to give as much as I can and, occasionally, to give a little more.
I think most people run for specific reasons, but I do not view myself as one of these people. In fact, now that I think about, I don’t think I could pinpoint one specific reason as to why I like to run. I do not run because I think it is therapeutic; to the contrary, I have to run with music just so I can block out most of my thoughts, otherwise I find myself stressing out about all of the subjects tumbling around in my mind. I guess, if I had to supply some vague answer, I’d simply have to say that I like the mechanics of running, both physically and mentally. I like the inevitability of the forward movement. There is constantly one foot in front of the other; you can’t go backwards when you run. Each time your foot hits the pavement, your body moves with it. Every muscle is engaged in the motion and you are in complete control. Mentally, you control how fast and how far you will run. Your body is not going to stop until your mind tells it to. It is strength in body and mind that allows you to run; the choice is entirely up to you.
When I first arrived in London, one of the first things I noticed was that my place of residence was literally two seconds away from Hyde Park. Hyde Park is the ideal place for runners. At any given point of the day you can walk into any area of the park and spot at least five runners. There are always people working on their fitness, be it morning boot camps, biking, walking, or running. There are even the occasional swimmers, which is gross because the pond is full of bird ‘business.’ Anyways, I took my living right beside to Hyde Park as the perfect opportunity to keep up with my running. Fitness is very important to me, and I did not want to lose that just because I was in Europe.
I went on my first run maybe my third day into London life. It did not go so well. I kept stopping to admire things. I wasn’t used to running through gardens, under picturesque bridges, or alongside ponds casually filled with beautiful swans. It ended up turning into a three hour walk/run with only about twenty minutes of running. I covered most of London that day, jogging shoes and all. After that I did not really run much in the park. I always found myself venturing there to read or bike. It was only recently that I started running there again, and it was a completely different experience.
Since I’ve started work, I haven’t had much time to work out. I get done once it’s already very dark outside, and it’s never safe to run at that time of day. So, in an effort to keep my promise to myself, I have begun waking up early and running before work. The first day that I followed through with this plan left me in the weirdest of moods. Running in London is completely different from running on my campus, but the strange part is that I do not think much of it had to do with the aesthetic scenery and location. In actuality, I believe it mostly had to do with my mentality.
As I began running, I listened hard to the sound of my feet hitting the pavement. I settled into a steady rhythm and matched it to a song on my iPod. Breathing deeply, I let the wind hit my face harshly, pushing the sleep out of my eyes. I remember thinking that this was going to be a great run, and it was. My stride began to pick up, matching my racing thoughts. It occurred to me that I was running in a place that I had never been before—and I’m not just talking about location. For the first time in my life, I was embracing an entirely new sense of independence. This entire experience has brought me into a new chapter of my life and I am nowhere near in the same place in my life as I was only two months ago. Two months ago I was uneasy and careful with each and every decision. Since being in London, I feel that I’ve learned that each decision you make, both insignificant and significant, is only going to bring you to more choices and opportunities. Therefore, there is no sense in second guessing and being uneasy about life—it’s going to happen whether you want it to or not. I’ve learned that you are in charge of what happens to you– how far you will go and how much you will give into every task handed to you. I pushed myself a little faster, realizing that my newly learned life lessons and running were very much one in the same. In order to reach a point of success and satisfaction, I will myself to go farther and harder both in running and my life.
I don’t want to make it sound like running in Europe is a life-changing experience. It’s not like I was running and then stopped in the middle of the park and got down on my knees in self-revelation. I only want to say that being abroad has changed so many things in so many different areas of my life, even down to something as seemingly mundane as running. I look forward every morning to taking a new path in the park, to seeing something I haven’t seen before, and feeling that same sense of fresh independence. The best part about it all is that this new feeling I get while running is something I can take with me. I will still have this understanding long after I leave, and will indubitably implement it into my life back home, and even if I leave London with just that, it will be enough.