Why Running is Important to Me. An essay about running written by a cancer survivor

Honestly this whole essay describes my whole running experience. To pick merely a few quotes will be difficult! To begin, I picked this particular essay for two reasons. Most of you know that I am a runner. I have been running ever since I could walk, to racing the neighborhood boys around the block. Second, my grandpa and aunt died of cancer. I have seen how hard it is for people and their bodies to function doing everyday things. That’s why this women inspired me, still continuing to run when everything was against her.

Just today I ran at the arboretum with my cross country team. Just the fact that I get to run with my friends, while getting better at the same time! All of “the soft surfaces”, “the smell” of all the growing trees, “the high cliffs” all of it is truly amazing to have that rush of running through nature. Not knowing what is around the next bend and always hoping over roots and rocks is an adventure. I remember when I was at cross country camp, we were running next to the river and eventually through it. (It was at my waist!) It’s so much fun when it is “high and rushing like a torrent!” It’s amazing to see “how the river changes.”

“You see, this is where I not only run, this is where I find solace, where I go when I need to escape.” For most runners, running is a way to “be normal” and express ourselves in a sport that takes so much mental and physical pain. After school, yes sometimes I would rather go home sit in front of the tv and eat snacks all day. (Runners can seriously be the laziest people you ever will meet, ironic hu?) But that’s the best part! We are “committed”. We run through “rain, ice, snow, (especially here in great ol Wisconsin…) sleet, hot, warm…all kinds of weather. That is our escape. If we had a bad day at school, you have a good workout that day to look forward to and get all the anger and frustration out. But to non-runners, you all still think we are insane and I don’t blame you for that. We as runners “take a sort of twisted pride in the joke that our sport is every other sport’s punishment.”

My Aunt Susan died when I was still a baby. She was only 18 years old. She had a kind of cancer that built up over time. I do not know the exact reason she got cancer in the first place, but all I know is that she strived to be normal. She was not a runner like this women was, but she loved to sing and play her guitar. That was her “one activity that made, (my aunt) feel normal and alive and like I was still part of this world.” She also had to get a fake wig since all her hair was falling out. She was too “losing weight, (her) face was as white as a sheet and swollen.” She too felt “depression.”

My Grandpa died a few years ago, near my 14^th birthday. His cancer was breaking down his body physically. He too “lost weight” (he weighed less than me) and was “white as a sheet.” This women said that cancer literally “brought her to her knees”, that’s what it did to my grandpa too. Cancer is so hard on one’s body, and that shows how much dedication this women was to her running and to her body, to get better. She mentioned that on one of her runs, she felt as though she “had a spear stuck in the right side of (her) chest.” She had to “kneel on one knee, the other firmly planted on the dirt.” That is a scary feeling, not being able to breath. Obviously that’s something you desperately need is air while running.

All in All, seeing how someone is this dedicated to her running while going through chemo is absolutely amazing. To personally know how hard and draining cancer is on one’s body. I can also relate to her because of our love to running, especially through trails or the woods. She summarized it all up right at the end: “And that is why I love running: nothing makes me feel more alive. I hope I can run forever.”