running

Today I ran for the first time since before David and I got married.  Three years and more. 

It felt so good.

I’ve had this impulse to start running again for months; a restlessness that would strike me in the early mornings, an urge to get 20 minutes’ strenuous relaxation – a momentary pause from my life as a mother, from the dishes, from the laundry.  Just breathing in and breathing out, hearing my feet crunch on the sandy road, and feeling awake and refreshed from these few moments in the fresh air and new day.

I didn’t think it was possible until I read my friend Coreyanne’s blog.  She spoke of running skirts, which I’d never really thought about.  I just knew that I couldn’t run without a skirt – because of the culture where I live.  I would need a skirt that reached well below my knees, and yet was designed for running.  The information that Corey posted on her blog spurred me to investigate.  My mother-in-law found a girl on Etsy advertising a handmade running skirt, who was willing to customize the length for me.  Better yet, it was half the price of the “name brand” running skirts out there (which weren’t even available in my size).

Suddenly things were coming tog ether, and I realized that my desire was being fulfilled.  The skirt was ordered, and my sister-in-law included it in the care package she sent us this month.  It arrived this week, a flowery and uplifting print, along with my athletic shoes which had been left in storage in the USA under the mistaken impression that I wouldn’t need them here.  The pieces were falling into place. 

I want to run early in the mornings, as soon as the sun is up.  When there are fewest people on the roads, out and about, and I have to deal with as little staring as possible.  They already think I am very strange for taking a walk with Marjanne every afternoon.  Zambians don’t comprehend the idea of walking for leisure.  Now they will see an even stranger sight – the ‘mzungu’ woman runs down the road as if she is fleeing a lion!  But if I go early, maybe I will even avoid having any early-bird students see me over their breakfast cup of tea. 

Ketzia accommodates me by getting up early in the mornings.  She is always awake sometime around or after 5am… too early.  I arrange to leave her with Sarah, to play in the bedroom while I am gone.  David is on “Elijah duty,” but Elijah never gets up as early as Ketzia, so it’s likely that David will get a bit more rest while I am gone.

The final arrangement is to borrow Sarah’s beautiful iPod.  I need a soundtrack for my exertion, to keep myself focused.  One of these days I  will get some music loaded onto my own mp3 player, but for today, I have fresh music to spur me down the sandy road, songs I’ve never heard before.

And so it comes together.  Ketzia wakes up at 5:47.  I nurse her briefly, to keep her happy until my return.  My alarm goes off at 5:50.  I take Ketzia into the bathroom so that she will be happy with Mommy in sight while I change into my new running skirt, put my shoes on, pull my hair up.  I drop Ketzia with sleepy Sarah for a cuddle, grab the iPod and earbuds, and take a  few swallows of water.

My dogs greet me ecstatically as I do some minor stretches in front of our gate.  I call Merry to join me, and leave Tuppence behind.  She is too wound up to run properly with me.  We walk rapidly towards the College sign, the entrance to the campus, building up steam.  At the sign I turn right onto the dirt and sand driveway which leads, 4kms later, to the tarmac road.  It is 6:07.  I settle into a slow, rhythmic  shuffle.  The music plays.  The breeze cools my face.  My dog trots alongside, delighted.

I’ve decided to start slow, so I run for 2 minutes, walk for 1 minute.  Rinse and repeat.  I feel encouraged that my body seems to remember how to do this.  Breathe in, breathe out.  No cramps arise.  The breathlessness is not so bad.  After two running cycles and two walking cycles I turn around.  There is no need to push myself too far on the first day, or I might hamper my progress by wearing myself out.  I retrace my steps in the freshness of the morning.  I don’t see a single person during my run, and return to the house renewed.  Time for a quick rinse in the shower, and then I collect my baby back.  Husband and son still sleeping.  The house is quiet.  And I even have to time to write a blog post about it.   I think this is the beginning of a positive life change!