My husband made me an app. It has a picture of Will Farrell on it and is called "I'm Streaking" and it counts the number of days on it since I started running with this game called Zombies, Run! It is my very own app but you can see it at http://chandler-runs.herokuapp.com/since/2012/3/25.
Because of this Zombies game and because of my husband's support (which comes in more forms that just an app), I have built up a pretty significant streak.
I used to think that if I ran enough it would stop hurting, but I'm starting to realize that it's probably not going to stop so it's my job to stop caring that it hurts. I am not advocating denial--but it's become very important to me to understand the difference between pain that comes from discipline and pain that comes from disease.
Last year I had surgery to remove internal scar tissue that had built up, probably as a result of a couple of unacknowledged kidney stone situations. It was not until after the surgery provided relief that I realized how severe the pain that I had been in was. I spent months coming home from work every day and curling up in bed in pain, avoiding friends and family because the pain in my abdomen was intense that it regularly brought me to tears. My students must have thought I was pretty peculiar when I would suddenly grab my side or back during critique and grimace while simultaneously telling them that their assignments showed a great deal of talent and effort. I found myself using lamaze techniques just to get through a short drive and counting the minutes until I could take another Aleve. http://www.medicaldaily.com/news/20120517/9913/pain-tolerance-sports-athletes.htm
Now that surgery provided relief from that painful period, I am happy to bring the coping mechanisms I used at that time to my habit of endurance running. The distraction of the Zombie game coupled with a tolerance for a little pain in my shins has made this streak into a fixture of my life. I plan to join the United States Running Streak Association as soon as I qualify and to keep running every single day for as long as I can put one foot in front of the other.
Zombies, Run! pretends to be a fitness game, but proves to be a meditation on mortality that borders on something religious.
