I just went for my run. And wanted to talk about it with some of my new social connections here on the threadiverse. I used to run a lot. Like a lot a lot. 100 miles a week sometimes. I was a long distance specialist trying to qualify for Olympic marathon trials. Injuries and old age have ended that chapter of my life and I often find myself needing to remind myself to be proud of my ~10mi/w workload because that’s more than a lot of people my age in my profession do.
Today I just ran around my neighborhood. There’s a nice park nearby but I don’t get to go to it very often because the street I have to run down to get there can be pretty scary. I think access to green spaces is something that often goes neglected in community planning in my country
I’m obviously not in charge, but I can’t really run due to genetic issues, and I’d love to hear about how your (and others’) interaction with green spaces are mediated by the experience of running in/through them. I imagine it creates a very different experience/relationship than a nature walk.
I always feel more one with nature than an observer of nature on runs. It’s more meditative and less… Mentally noisy I guess
I felt much the same when I ran more often than I do now. There’s something buried in our brains from when we were long distance exhaustion hunters that wakes up once you’re reaching a flow state during a run - smells are more vivid, our eyes take in all the small lives moving around us, and our connection to the earth feels more solid with each step.
I have no issues with posts like this in this group, as long as there’s a connection to nature in the post and ensuing discussion. There are qualitative differences between running through natural settings and those full of concrete and blacktop, and I feel as though this is an appropriate avenue for folks to explore that.
Additionally, there had been interest during the last round of community suggestions for an “Outdoors/Hiking” type community. While there wasn’t enough to get the green light, several mods felt that this corner of Beehaw would be an appropriate forum for those posts until there’s enough engagement around those for their own community. If a post is more about technical aspects of running, you may be asked to post in !sports instead.
I’ll second this. I’d love to see posts about the green spaces you run through, but for a discussion more focused on the running itself, that would be better suited elsewhere.