Embracing solitude can be key to the run

Embracing solitude can be key to the run=

By Bill Shaw
The Facts <= /p>

Publ= ished January 8, 2007

“The long-distance run of an early morning,” wrote Alan Sillitoe in “The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner” (1959), “makes me think that every run li= ke this is a life — a little life, I know — but a life as full of misery and happiness and things happening as you can ever get really around yourself.”

I felt this way as I finished up the last miles of a 15-mile bike ride agai= nst an almost 30-mph wind Saturday, and made my first step into a 3.2-mile run to = wrap up a triathlon-training brick. Against the wind was miserable, with the wind was happier, and life is like a run with and against the wind.

Sillitoe’s title is misleading. “Loneliness” suggests to = some a sense of despair, or desolation, a deep longing for companionship or comp= any. To me, it suggests solitude, not a sense of isolation or separation, but a positive “aloneness” during which I can think and reflect. In a sense, then, the runner — and the writer — need that “loneliness” to train and to write.

“Be able to be alone,” said Sir Thomas Brown (1605-1682), the Renaissance scholar. “Lose not the advantage of solitude.”        &= nbsp;

Many who resolve at this time of the year to get in shape and to develop a regular exercise regimen fail because they have lost the advantage of solit= ude. I once ran with a colleague at the college who could not run alone. He would not run unless he had others to run with him. He would not enter a race unl= ess someone whom he knew entered the race. He doesn’t run anymore.        &= nbsp;

Many who set fitness goals turn to team sports like basketball or softball,= or sports that require at least two participants like tennis or racquetball. T= hey reject running, walking, cycling or swimming — all essentially solita= ry sports. They argue that solitary sports do not offer them the camaraderie a= nd individual competition.   &n= bsp;

I disagree. Fun runs, cycling with clubs, swimming competitions or just mee= ting friends at a pool offer both camaraderie and individual competition. I beli= eve the individual is tested most when he runs with his peers. Since I turned t= o triathloning, I also believe the individual is tested= even further when he swims, bikes and runs with his peers. A triathlete who cros= ses the finish line feels profoundly the camaraderie, individual competition and sense of athletic achievement, no matter where he finishes in the pack.

“What most runners have in their daily run is a very special place for mental and spiritual life,” wrote George Sheehan, cardiologist and running guru of the 1980s and ’90s, in “Personal Best” (Rodale Press 1989). “But it comes with easy running, at a pace that frees the mind to create and the spirit to soar. The physical challenge a r= acer inflicts on himself has no place here.”

If your enthusiasm to develop a regular exercise regimen is waning in this second week of the new year, your waning enthusi= asm might be due to your inability to be solitary.

Explore the “loneliness” of the long-distance runner and see wh= ere the solitary trails take you.

Explore the camaraderie and competition in the sixth annual Angleton Specta= cle Spectacular 5K or 10K on Jan. 27. For information and registration, log on = to active.com or call (979)-849-8752. &nb= sp;

Bill Shaw’s running column a= ppears every other Monday in The Facts= .