You gotta love
that early moment in “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt,” when our hero scoots off in
her sparkly sneakers and runs up to an urban jogger and greets him with a smile
and remarks, her arms pumping with glee, how much she loves to run.
Kimmy, for the
uninitiated, has been out of cultural circulation for a medieval generation,
fifteen years, so missed the Great Running Craze, the movement away from
running that children do in play to what adults do in a workout.
The active word
here is “work.” A big part of what has kept me running for my life all these years – I’ll be
sixty in October – is that I’ve kept work and running (writing
and reading, too) separate. For me, like Kimmy, running is pleasure … I “work”
for a living, in my salaryman life. But that’s where my work ends.
Which doesn’t
mean I don’t set a reward for the running that I do. (And not by running with
music, because, by my lights, the music lives in the reward category. I know
this is old school, but how about turning on your favorite tunes AFTER a run as
you celebrate by singing in the shower ? … Just a thought.)
Make your reward something
simple. Maybe after the shower, unwrap an energy bar with your “juice” of
choice and watch a little “Kimmy.” We can all learn from that girl.
Next: Running for
Your Life: Bern, Baby, Bern!
