GEAR
ZEN AND THE ART OF WATCH-FREE RUNNING BY DANIEL JOHNSON
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’ve enjoyed watch free running the past couple of decades. While a younger runner I had my Casio Chronograph that I wore faithfully. But over time I felt less compelled by the clock and more driven by the sheer joy of unrestricted and unmonitored running. How much better it is if we can run to our own beat. While competitive runners tend to be a bit compulsive about our training and racing, I believe we are also often free spirits, and a bit less conventional than your average Joe or Jane. I, like a lot of my running friends, run to the beat of a different drummer. We don’t take direction all that well. If you say zig, we go zag. Maybe that’s in part why I’ve gone off course no fewer than three times while racing over the years. In college, and for a few years after, I had plenty of time to train and race. I hooked up with a bunch of fast running buddies on Wednesday nights and we cruised around Harriet, Calhoun and Isles. I later learned that some of the slower runners called us the “flying assholes”. I quit racing, when it became too much of an obsession. I didn’t have adequate time to train at the level that would keep me competitive. In my 20’s I felt I would be losing it if I could no longer run a sub 2:30 marathon. The joy of running was dimmed when it became too closely associated with race results. Time for training and racing became scarce after I was married and launched a nonprofit mentoring program. A running epiphany occurred for me in the late 1980s. I began a Get in Gear race that I felt obliged to run; however, just a mile into the race I realized my heart wasn’t into racing, and I turned around and starting jogging to the starting line. Someone shouted out “you’re going the wrong way.” I smiled and continued on my way, realizing I was indeed now going the right way for me at that time. I had decided I needed a break from racing. Decades passed since that Get in Gear race, and I downshifted my career, so I had more time to run and race respectfully with a team.
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MDRA MEMBER GREG TAYLOR OF MINNEAPOLIS RUNS THE 36TH ANNUAL JEFF WINTER CITY OF LAKES HALF MARATHON THIS SUMMER IN MINNEAPOLIS. Photo by Wayne Kryduba
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018
