Catch the Wind: Running Again

‘Never say never’ is an excellent maxim. I don’t know why I haven’t lived by it more. For years now, I had convinced myself that I would never run again. Been there, done that, not a kid anymore. Not being one to abide unnecessary discomfort, imagine my shock when just a few weeks ago I ran a mile without stopping. It may have been the world’s slowest mile, but it was not a walk, I can tell you that.

Why take up running (or as in my case – a feeble trot), out of the blue like that? After all, if a fifty- something woman says she has forsworn an activity because of her health, shouldn’t she be allowed the prerogative? For the average Jo, running could not possibly be healthy. The homo sapien biped was designed to put one foot in front of the other but certainly not for any rate faster than three miles per hour. There are too many torn meniscuses out there proving that precise point. Or so I was willing to think.

Speeding up was an unintended but inspired response to meeting up with an old friend who taught me that if I had the capacity to use my legs then I had better get going and be grateful. My original intention was to walk myself to a mildly better level of fitness. I had no ambition beyond a leisurely two and a half mile per hour pace. As the weeks ticked by, I started to fall into the evening rhythm of putting on my trainers and walking out the door with a sense of relief and anticipation. A positive attitude was beginning to replace my initial begrudging of the time requirement. I was finding that I was sleeping a lot better plus being a little more mindful of what I was eating, some benefits I had not anticipated. I also was getting some important “thinking time” out of the deal. Then six weeks ago, a funny thing happened: I had the urge to put on a little speed. A little spring in my feet, it was as simple as that, and I was running.

I literally bumped into my source of inspiration at this past year at a high school reunion . As I was turning away from a conversation to go get some refreshments, I tripped over my old girlhood friend, Sherry B., who was directly behind me in a wheelchair. Like everyone there, she had undergone some big changes from the days when acne, geometry tests and the subject of prom dominated our teenage concerns. However, Sherry’s adulthood concerns had a different shape to them than many of us. Early in her twenties, Sherry was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis and had been coping with the disease’s demands over the decades while she raised and fledged a family.

With the same spunk she’d had as a teenager, Sherry told me about her family and her life in general, which included an unexpected but frank discussion of managing incontinence. She heard me mention that I did some work for an adult diapers supplier and she let me know we were on some common ground. She told me of how she grappled with the realization that incontinence was going to be a fact of her life not long after getting her last baby out of his own diapers. Still the die-hard country music fan as she always was, Sherry told me that she kept a Dolly Parton quote on her fridge door: “We cannot change the direction of the wind, but we can adjust the sails.” “So,” she said, “I have been busy taking sailing lessons.”

Any of that half empty glass philosophy I had been embracing was embarrassed right out of me. I was aging normally and even had some genetic inheritance that was naturally holding a number of unpleasant possibilities at bay. Yet I could be aggravated by an ill timed sneeze that threatened to send me to the changing room. That is a far cry from needing adult diapers but it is a gentle reminder of what a short trip that could be for some.

Incontinence was an indignity that Sherry’s disease forced her to cope with far too early in life. Normally, if and when women experience incontinence, it is the result of deteriorating muscle tone due to the aging process. Such is the unfair lot of many female bodies; minute sphincter muscles are their bladders’ lonely gate keepers between dry and wet. Childbearing, impact exercises (think jumping jacks and running) and aging can all be agents of incontinence. While it is certainly not that every woman is going to have to resort to adult diapers, statistics show that of the more than 25 million Americans who experience degrees of urinary incontinence, somewhere between 75 and 80 percent are women. Such staggering figures as these mean a lot of people out there would benefit from Sherry’s sailing lessons.

I “see” Sherry daily on FaceBook these days. We have promised each other to not lapse into any long silences like the one before the reunion. I told her I credit her with my new foray into running and she gets a laugh out of that. I have a technique that lifts me up when I think I am not going to be able to finish the trot for that day because I feel too winded. When I am sure of my footing, I tilt my head back and watch the clouds. My airways open fully and my mind is freed from thinking about the remaining distance. I told Sherry about this on FB and she sent back some punchy advice: “Set your sails and catch the wind. And remember to invest in a good sports bra.