Physical Education......Alexa Perlmutter

PHYSICAL EDUCATION

ALEXA PERLMUTTER (AB’21)

The day before our meeting, I went on my longest run yet: twenty-four miles. I had joined a local D.C. running group that summer, and I would meet them at the Iwo Jima memorial every Saturday morning for my weekly long runs. Often, I would run to the monument from my mom’s apartment so when I got there, I would already have done six or seven miles. “Stealth miles,” the 30-somethings in the group called them, praising my dedication to the marathon. Then, we would run another twelve or so miles together around the city, exploring parts of D.C. and Northern Virginia I had never visited as a kid. We ran around the airfields at Reagan National Airport, through muddy trails in Rock Creek Park, and in hilly suburban neighborhoods in Arlington and the Palisades. My pace group was made up of men and women of all ages, some nearing fifty, and I was the youngest by at least five years. My runs in Chicago had been solitary and gave me the time and safety to think about my dad in private, but my runs with the group were loud and filled with raucous laughter as we swapped stories. We grew comfortable with each other, willing to share private parts of ourselves in the shared intimacy of running: sometimes it’s easier to talk to people when you don’t have to look at them, when you can keep your eyes trained ahead and hear their steps and breathing match the beat of your own. On our twenty-four-mile run, I found myself talking about my dad and how nervous I was to meet him the next day. I was heartened by the stories that my running partners shared about their own struggles with family. Whereas friends my own age struggled to empathize with my situation, it seemed as if these older people each had an equally outrageous story. I finished the run feeling light and full.