Treadmilling home

One of the most decided down sides of my departure from Minneapolis is the personal loss of the running trails of the Twin Cities. I’ve logged thousands of miles on the Twin Cities running paths, mostly the River Road loops, Minnehaha Creek and the Minneapolis lakes.  I love the running paths and the scenic views.  The trails are beautiful in all seasons, and I enjoy running them throughout the year.  I usually run alone and I’ve come to know the trails so well - the distances and splits, the water fountains, shady loops for hot summer afternoons or sheltered stretches for windy winter days.

It has been over four years since I’ve run indoors and much longer since I’ve run on a treadmill.  The thought of running on a treadmill has so little appeal to me.  It takes so much more discipline to run on a treadmill in my opinion.  Outside, the natural world is so inviting that even on days when I have almost no motivation, if I can just get myself down the block and into a bit of rhythm, I’m very soon lost in the enjoyment of the run.   A treadmill seems like a foreboding prison guard, keeping me from the bright outdoors.

Nevertheless, with the travel schedule I now have, I’m forced to come to terms with the treadmill.  Not that I can really enjoy treadmilling, but I can tolerate it.  This morning, I was on the treadmill at the Jacaranda Hotel in Nairobi.  The dull monotony of running on a treadmill was difficult to manage.  I started converting the kilometers to miles in my mind so I could gauge where I was in the run.  As the time wore on, I started to picture where I might be on my favorite running loop.  Most runners have a favorite loop, I suppose - sort of the go-to run or the bread-and-butter route.  Mine is the Ford-Lake Loop on the River Road system.  I typically run this loop 70 or so times each year.  Soon I was imagining myself crossing the Ford Bridge and heading north on the East River Road.  Kilometers would tick past and I’d do the conversion to find myself at Summit Avenue and then making my way onto the Lake Street Bridge.

Often when I’m running unfamiliar courses and having a difficult outing, I will count down the miles by imagining I am on a familiar course.  Since every treadmill run is unfamiliar and difficult for me, it seemed quite natural to find myself counting down the kilometers near the end of the run.  I crossed under 46^th Street and Minnehaha falls.  With one kilometer to go I was crossing over Hiawatha and ascending toward 34^th Avenue.  I sped the treadmill up a few notches for the final stretch.  Turning the corner at 34^th and crossing over Minnehaha Creek I often pick up the pace as I aim for the intersection of 47^th Street and 34^th Avenue.  I reach down and turn off my Garmin 305 as I walk the final block.  The hum of the treadmill disappears as I grasp the door handle.  My run is finished but imagination hasn’t.

Missing my house on 33^rd Avenue and missing my family… Wishing I were home.