When you cannot run around in Nature

 “Stadiums are for spectators. We runners have Nature, and that is much better.”

-  Juha Väätäinen, Finnish former athlete

 

This morning, someone sent me this quote. A famous quote among runners.

And I see the point: rather than being a spectator confined to a stadium, or to a spot on the sidewalk or a bleacher, runners are roaming around in Nature. Nature with a capital N.

But then there is the rest of us.
Too embarrassed to run outside, even in Nature.
Weathering a storm, freezing, or sweltering heat.
Or hindered by the kidnaps alerts multiplying on our security app, the shooting audibly approaching, and the unvaccinated dogs of those neighbors who already left the country on the lookout for some fun.

Being in that last category, I did what many people do in this country: “degaje”: make do with what you have. And I am blessed with a wonderful husband who put the cherries on the cake.

So, I bought a treadmill; and a few years later upgraded to a heavy duty one when a fellow runner sold his as he left the country – and Dear Husband provided for the solar power to run it.

Treadmill walking and running is uneventful.
Boring.
Big Time.
When I was just walking, I could keep myself somewhat entertained with videos and other things that move on a screen. Improving by graduating from jogging to running, I needed to put off my glasses, so screen time was over. Plus, fixing my eyes on a screen during my runs didn’t quite help my running style. So the screen went out, and the wall mirrors came in.
Someone suggested I’d try podcasts – but with my pounding the treadmill’s running belt, plus my own huffing and puffing, no podcast seemed to keep me concentrated.

Then I placed the treadmill in front of the window. Every window here is equipped with “fers forgés” (which actually are “burglar bars”, but it sounds so much nicer in French) and ours are home-made. Make that Husband-made. Make that “hard to look past the bars”.

I thought long and hard for ways to look past the bars.
A Garden would do!
I started collecting cuttings and plants, and Husband arranged for a retaining wall and other technicalities needed to make this a Real Garden.

Meanwhile, my running improved, but it still felt like “running nowhere”. Until a virus helped some people think out of the box, and virtual races became easy to enroll into.

With my first virtual race came a Cause I would be running for, and an awesome online community. With pictures of other treadmill runners, back yard runners, parking lot runners. I asked a few times how many rounds they’d run, and got answers like 73, 171 and “I don’t even count”.

Now, between running on my treadmill looking out on my pretty garden, versus running 171 (!) rounds on a parking lot, I suddenly feel sooooo privileged with my treadmill! And I am no longer “running nowhere” as I am contributing to charities I care about while working on my running skills.

Last week, I saw someone referring to her treadmill as “dreadmill”.
Poor thing (she, not her treadmill).
I felt bad for her. Because I have been there.
But I have come to love my treadmill, which got me over the years from 30-seconds jogs at the time to my upcoming Half Marathon.

And that Nature? I am looking at it. Past the burglar bars.
So yes, we runners have the better part.