Michael Gravel Edmonton Writer

For The Love of the Run

About a year ago I started hitting the gym on a regular basis. In the months before that I’d been battling an annual seasonal depression that seemed to creep in worse and worse with every passing year. Last year it reached a near unbearable state and something had to be done. I grabbed my workout shorts and launched over to the sweathouse. I chose Kinsmen Rec Center for a few reasons – location (close), facilities (broad range of equipment and services) and hours of operation (open early and late). The place now feels like home somehow – there’s a group of regulars and a small assortment of freaks and crazies. The joint is a little rough around the edges and I like it that way. If I don’t hit the weights for a few days, I definitely feel out of sorts.

Lift? Lift What?

I’ve never been a gym kinda guy. In fact, I’ve openly mocked serious gym goers, including some good friends of mine. I used to pride myself on the fact that I never exercised. When I lived on Saskatchewan Drive, I used to sit on my patio and laugh at the Running Room crew as they jogged by in their neon jackets and $200.00 runners. I’m still a skeptic of the Running Room and any many other gear retailers like MEC, but I no longer laugh at runners (not all of them). Or anybody else who takes physical fitness seriously. I won’t call myself a runner but after a year of building up strength and stamina I must say that I love running. That statement goes against everything I once said, and it’s also surprising considering my congenital heart defect – a leaky valve that should limit my activity more than it does.

One thing I’ve noticed about gym goers and runners / walkers in particular: Many of them seem to be obsessed with the gear. Guys in expensive running shorts and specialty tops rocking the $250.00 runners. Women with the head-to-toe Running Room uniform complete with ass-mount water bottle holder. Thankfully, most people at the gym and on the track actually do the work. To me, stores like The Running Room and MEC are only slightly less contemptible than Abercrombie and Fitch¹. They’re just praying on a different audience, or a different part of the same audience. What gets me is the idea that owning the gear is enough; that owning a set of high-end hiking boots will enable one to scale a peak. I admit that I easily fall prey to this line of thinking.

If I only owned that camera, I could take better photos.

Once I own that piece of software, my life will be easier.

When I get that pair of runners, I’ll be running the Boston Marathon.

Once I get that pair of $150.00 sandblasted denims, I’ll get laid.

Of course, none of that is true. My big continuous guilt, the one that I have to outrun at nearly every turn in every endeavour, is that I give up too fast. And it’s taken me decades to recognize the point at which I jump ship: just before the tipping point; just before I get kinda good at something. Somehow, just trying to move past that doesn’t seem like enough. Trying is for pussies. People who try go home alone. People that do? They go home and fuck the prom queen².

Doing the Work

Bottom line with anything worth doing, and anything that’s going to make your life better: It’s fucking work. It’s hours, months, and years of building up skill, strength, and stamina. This shit doesn’t happen over night, and it doesn’t happen just ‘cuz you got the latest version of Windows. That goes for running, building cabinets, being a better parent, or doing layouts in Photoshop. Time and work. When you say them together like that they almost sound like curse words, and that’s how it should be. As time goes on I realize more and more that talent – natural, god-given talent – doesn’t really count for much. The gutters are filled with super-talented amateurs who did nothing. An ounce each of persistence, patience, and a slow-burn work ethic are worth more than fifty pounds of natural talent. Worth more than that is a high tolerance for ambiguity and failure. That’s the real tough one. Knowing that you suck is pretty hard to live with but it seems to be essential for “success”, however you define it.

I’m off to the gym. Thanks for reading.

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¹ Abercrombie is at the top of the intolerably ludicrous retailer list. They don’t deserve a link or the space to explain why the suck so hard (self-evident), so Google them.

² To paraphrase Sean Connery.

Entry #113 · November 21, 2009 in