I ran, I ran, I ran so far away: In the Beginning was water

(Photo: Stephen Lam / San francisco Chronicle / September 11, 2015)

This is my running diary. This is my soul searching journey to find out why I run, where and how I started it and whether I will stop ever. this is a confession to find the roots of my deep passion for running. When I think of running the first thing that comes to my mind is freedom. Running is liberating, it is the closest one can get to his body and mind. My running story is the story of dreaming and living up to your dreams. When I talk to my running friends, they usually tell me how they started running in high school and how they all were doing cross country runs. Running seems like a natural continuation of an old habit for them. My story is however, a bit different:

My hometown Isfahan, Iran

I really started running way after my high school years. As a matter of fact I did not play any sports in high school beside ping pong. It was and still is one of my most favorite sports to play. But as long as for running, I don't even remember that I ever considered trying it until later when I started college. One summer during my college years (I think year 2000), I started running in the mornings. I would run from our house to a nearby park and keep running along the river. After few weeks I had found my passion: distance running. I had a good friend who was living on the other side of the town. Every morning we were running to meet each other on a bridge and run a mile from there together. After that, I would keep running a loop back home from the other side of the river.

Although the total run was something like 4 miles, I always had a dream of running longer. My goal (that I never achieved) was to run from the closest bridge to our house to the last one and run back. That would be a good 10 miles, something so far away for me that made me think of it as an unreachable dream rather than a realistic goal. 

That dream never died in me although I forgot about running for many many years after that summer. 

I graduated in 2002, moved to another city for my graduate studies. Then moved back to my hometown for work and then left my home country for good. I travelled and lived for few years around the world and never ran again. I came to the US in 2009 and started school again and then one night in my last few years of the PhD program, everything changed.