A One-Time Runner Takes a Pass on Global Running Day

I won’t celebrate Global Running Day on June 4th. Around April of 2022 I decided that I needed to stop running for my knee’s sake. After a fast four-mile run my right knee took too long to recover. I’d need that joint for the foreseeable future.

In the early 2020s, running was a pillar of my physical fitness routine. I’d run five miles per week. Fast. At one point in my 40s, when I was a member of the YWCA I ran miles on blacktop or sidewalks atop of swimming 20 laps in a pool every week.

“Approximately 50 to 51 million adult Americans—about 15% of the U.S. population—engage in some form of running or jogging as a regular habit, according to recent reports from Statista and other industry sources,” according to LiveStrong.com from July 2024. Global Running Day needs attention and more adherents to take the baton.

I was ambitious about strength training. In my 40s, I based my strength routine on the U.S. Army Special Forces standard. This included a 2-mile timed run. I’m a civilian, but the Special Forces fitness standard was a challenging baseline for physical fitness.

I used to run fast. A couple of times using my sidewalk route I ran 8-minute miles! I didn’t know how I’d ran so fast. This surprised me and made me proud and excited. I finished a couple of 5ks before I decided that, needing to be being very frugal, it wasn’t worth paying for the pleasure of the run and a t-shirt, which I didn’t need.

These days, as I pass runners on my bicycle or while walking, I look to them saying “bravo”. After I stopped running in 2022, I told myself to find an alternative exercise to that. I’ve been bicycling all the while; maybe I need to declare that my default replacement for it? It doesn’t beat up on my leg joints. But somehow  cycling feels like too different or soft a challenge.

Now, with andropause having begun, my metabolism having slowed and my energy reduced, my physique and psyche have changed. Running is even less likely option for me. In late May, wearing professional clothes, and needing to make a bus connection, I sprinted for the bus, which had just passed me. I huffed and puffed for three blocks in order to reach it.

So those who mark Global Running Day by running, at 15% of the populace, will be a minority of Americans. In my 50s, instead of a flat stomach, which I used to take for granted having, I have a baby tire for a gut. I miss the challenge of running for speed and time, reaching for my 8-minute mile.

Over age 50, with body changes, I’ve aged away from running as a habit. Others will need to carry the running baton, which during my 40s I would have carried proudly.