Pace 🗞️ Slow News Day #51

Hey,

Justin Ehrecke's interview in Any Distance’s Community Spotlight features one of the most profound statements in my recent memory. I may have shared it before, but it clearly wanted to make its way back into Slow News Day.

"Our coaches would punish us by making us run. I never really considered myself a runner, honestly, because I always thought it was punishment."

If you'll forgive me the sweeping generalisation, I think this is the reason most people hate running. It's drilled in as a punishment, something to strain to overcome. And that's where a lifetime of running too fast begins.

It was only once I learned to slow the hell down — to drop my cadence and take shorter, more plodding, steps — that I was able to finish a run and feel good about it. No lungs-torn-to-shreds feeling, no burning rushes of lactic acid in my legs, no sin from which to be delivered. I’d basically been running at maximum speed until my body screamed at me—punishing myself.

And before we get any further, it’s only right that I share how frustratingly hard I continue to find running at my slow/steady/easy pace. My footsteps feel weird, my body doesn’t know if it’s walking or running. I feel like a newborn calf trying to right itself in the morning dew. I probably look as messy, too.

But when I get it right, it really does work. Running becomes a background to my wider sensory experience. I am a bundle of synapses and cells, moving through a swirling mass of matter. My brain falls into step with the steady rhythm of my legs and I feel able to direct my focus as I please. Want to think about running? Go for it. Want to plan a future business? Sure, do that. Want to pick out the call of birds in the hedgerow? That sounds rather lovely.

Slowing down isn’t a surrender or a sacrifice. It’s a beautiful permission that I grant myself to enjoy what’s happening and move through it free from tension. To do that in communion with my body is supremely special. I don’t want to take it for granted, nor do I want to miss out on it because of a misguided belief that running has to be fast and chest-trashingly difficult.

The really fun thing is, the more slow running I do, the faster I’ll get.

I guess, then, this is my commitment — or a redoubling of my commitment — to stay in that uncomfortably slow zone. To learn to love the plod in all its glory. To slow down and hear the birds sing. To stop punishing myself.

Slow down guide

Need a little help moving slower?

Ease your way out of Friday afternoon with this newsletter, a nice cup of something, and a little background music. Steal my setup if you aren't sure where to start.

After I press send, I’m going to meander down into Polzeath to get a cup of something. I’m on holiday this week, soaking up the Cornish sun before heading even further, deeper, West for a five-week stay in Newlyn. Plenty of coffees to be sipped there, let me tell ya — and surely some that’ll work a bit better as recommendations.

Tune-wise, why not try Kris Ulrich’s moreish Friends on the Internet? An A* title, a smile-inducing melody, and some heady synths and yeehaw gee-tar. See you on the other side of it, friend.

Take it easy,