Hi Katherine, Your recent article on per-form-ance is very important to me. Your last paragraph suggests the greatest truth: Running is not about competition with others or yourself, rather running is to serve the purpose of helping us each to fulfill our calling in life. Years ago my wife, Dana, gave me your book, and over that time I have slowly come to understand more of what you both are getting at with ChiRunning. Dana read from the book often, but only in the last year, of six years of your book with us, has she started to run. Now, she is running close to three miles, and I have the pleasure of running with her. But, only by shortening my stride as I maintain my cadence, have I been able to stay a tiny bit behind her so as not to pressure her into running faster than her form and endurance allows. At this non-competitive pace I have deepened the feeling of controlling my speed with the lean. I sense more fully the needle and the cotton; not spilling the chi while keeping the shoulders, hands and legs relaxed. The breath deep and easy. After all these years I am experiencing relaxation in the run, and hours later I am energized by the run, rather than made tired. This energy is carrying over into my work and relationships. Competitive drive is so hard to overcome. I look at my 10K race times of recent years and see how I was pushing way beyond my true form and endurance level. Early on I was at the edge of the pain I could tolerate, nursing some injury. With years of ChiRunning I have moved away from the discomfort of forcing, and the injuries have healed and gone away. My next race is in two weeks, I look forward to my best per-form-ance yet. In my training I’ve slowed down enough now to work on learning the timing of the arms swinging back, balancing the pelvis, rotating parallel to the ground in coordination with lifting the feet off the ground, way behind me at the rear of the stride, and keeping the knees low under me.
Joe M
