Tell me about your first run

Writing about running is like dancing about architecture - it's really a stupid thing to want to do

One of the things that I love finding out about the runners that I profile is how they started running. I ask them about their first run, and there are usually two answers.

1. The first time someone told them to go for a run.

2. The first time they went for a run by their own volition.

While the first one is usually at school and might involve being on the track or cross-country team, if the second one is applicable, it’s often the most revealing about their character.

It tells me their Why. It gives purpose to the thing they spend hours, maybe dozens of hours, doing every week. It explains their motives and reasons. It shines a light on some beautiful facet of their life.

I wrote about the intimacy of running a few weeks ago, and this is how I get to peer deep into the minds of the people I’m speaking to. As deep as they’ll let me, of course. Revealing anything about oneself to a stranger is an intimate act. The capturing of it might be even more so.

I’ve spoken before about how I signed up for …