I have a somewhat complicated relationship with personal fitness. Actually, that’s not true. It’s not very complicated, but I like to pretend it is.

As a kid, I identified very strongly with a certain stereotypical “nerd,” who hated “jocks” and “gym” and “healthy eating.” As anyone who has gone through any phase should know, it can be difficult to separate oneself from the identities that have been crafted over many vulnerable years. In fact, many of my worst memories of school come from interactions with teachers or other students in the context of gym class. I was, in fact, harrassed constantly in the locker room in middle school. In fifth grade I also had a teacher tell me I was fine when I was having trouble breathing after running a while. Unsurprisingly, a few years of this was enough for me to swear off sports and physical exertion entirely.

As I got older, I realized that I couldn’t only sit inside on the computer all day and I’d better figure out something to do outside. I was in a “running mood” when I moved to Duluth in 2012. My first morning in the dorms, I woke up early (much to the chagrin of my first roommate) to explore the campus by running1. Again in 2015, when I moved to southern Minneapolis, I spent the summer straining my shins and exploring the lakes around Uptown. In New York, there was a period where I tried to wake up early but that kind of died on the vine when I realized that it sucked. I got a gym membership then, and well, after 2020 I no longer have a gym membership.

Cue 2021. What if I gave myself a goal? How about, “One Hundred Miles Run in 2021?”

I’ve never been one to keep goals like this, so generally I avoid making them. This one though - it felt downright reasonable. You know what? I did it! One or two times a week I walked over to Central Park and huffed and puffed my way around the top half of the park - approximately 5K (3.11 miles for you Imperial philistines).

hope you like the gif

I completed the goal in August. Since then I ran an “official” 5K in Mantorville, Minnesota, while visiting my parents - achieving my best 5K time of just over 30 minutes! I think this means I… do fitness now?

  1. I feel like I need to clarify. I don’t mean “running” like sprinting, or even “continuously jogging.” Most of the time I run for X minutes and walk for Y minutes. Back then it was alternating “run 4 minutes walk 1” or something like that. Nowadays it’s “run 15, walk 5, run 15,” and even more recently, “run 35.” And even then, there’s a lot of wheezing involved.