I recently started running again, albeit slowly. Now that I've picked up a little bit more speed (very little, I might add) and have gotten past the point where I'm clutching my side, gasping for breath and stopping every few hundred feet to take a walking break, I'm enjoying it. I even entered a few races this fall. While I didn't set any course records, I did manage to take a minute and 20 seconds off my time from the end of October to the beginning of December. Hope twinkles like a star in the early night sky. If I can run through the winter - at least 15-18 miles a week - maybe I can take another two minutes off my time by spring. Perhaps more!
When I write, as when I run, I always have a short term and a long term goal in sight. With running it might be to take another 15 seconds off my race time or to run hard to the end of the block so my body begins to learn the feeling of moving fast. With writing, it might be to find an unforced rhyme, to work through a particularly difficult scene like a fight or an escape scene, to crawl inside my mc's head and communicate her fears and her hopes or to finally make it through to the end of the chapter.
Long term goals are easier. Why do I run? Because it's a challenge and I love a challenge and the feeling of accomplishment I experience when I've completed a long run or a tough race. I like the afterburn and the way running sculpts my muscles. My longterm goal is to improve my health and get off all my diabetes meds - for good.
With writing, it's always to complete my work in progress and eventually find a home for it. Much harder to do than say. The real joy is in the doing, in the time spent treading the streets of my neighborhood or sitting before my computer and rising to the challenge of a blank page - of making something out of nothing more than my thoughts and dreams.
