Monday is my Day Off, so I went for a run around the Carolina North Forest, two days after our (Chi Running) class on June 3.
I got it! I got the Chi Running thing! I would hesitate really even to call it “running”. it was more like bobbing in place and somehow also going forward. I went an extra three miles because the running felt so good. And when I tried picking up the speed by leaning forward/letting my feet kick out behind me further, it felt great, like my body was doing something it should, like it felt like what I saw great runners doing. I ran hills entirely with my arms and changed nothing with my legs: that was a a huge change.
THANK YOU!
Incidentally, I have been running distance since I was 10; I have always had a strong toe push-off (which put me at a disadvantage in cross country when running through rain and mud); I was nationally ranked in cross country for a brief moment when I was 16. After years away from running, I started training again in the 2000’s and in 2010 just got under a 90 minute half-marathon. And then….I tore my achilles tendon after a hard 14 mile run followed by 4 hours of walking around Manhattan.
I feel like I have been hobbled ever since, but Chi Running gives me new hope. Maybe I can run again…with joy? But it’s unlike any kind of running I have ever done before: it’s just bobbing place and somehow also moving forward.
Thanks again,
Robert Fruehwirth – Chapel Hill
