Keeping up can be hard to do

age as I peeked through tunnelled vision at the lawn below me! How the grass rushed up as I plunged to earth! What do you want to bet that those leaps had more than a little to do with the state of my knees these days?

Other than some brief brushes with track and field and a bit of soccer, that had been the extent of my running experience. Walking at a toddler’s pace was the most brisk exercise I’ve had until recently. Was it 10 years ago we started to hear about middle-aged folks learning to run again? Friends and family speak with quiet affection of their “morning run.” The final persuasion was an exercise program called Tumblebugs (registered): an adult with a young child practice basic gymnastic skills together—and can run around the gym! We learned about the Motorcycle Landing, a method of using muscles, instead of joints, to set yourself down after spending time in the air. Applying that method to a running step allowed me to avoid that common complaint, “I’d love to run but my knees won’t let me.”

Of course, there were other, intermediary steps before I could sail along for three kilometers without a gasp, but I’m keeping up nicely now. There are the usual benefits that you hear about: lovely endorphins, warm toes, stamina. For me, there is an added plus: who knew it was going to become almost a kind of meditation?

I start at the old train bridge where, in the shadowed pool, fish like to tread water. Counting them requires adjusting eyes to the murk and setting scanners to movement. On a good day, I catch the fan of a tail as the granddaddy (isn’t it encouraging that the river can support such big fish?) slides under the rocks but it also cheers me up to see many smaller fish. It’s blissful to glimpse the horses, tossing their manes. The squirrels and chipmunks add a jubilant note and there is something so reassuring about the cattle, grazing. I call it Keeping up with the Neighbourhood.