Three days a week, for the last couple of weeks, Leah and I have been running together. Just before dawn, we take a short walk out to Schenley--a large, elaborate park with many broad, tree lined trails, picnicking and playground equipment, hills, valleys, huge bridges, stairs and a pond with sleepy looking ducks--where we join a handful of other early risers. Among the early risers is Army. (Note: it's not "the" Army, just Army; especially, after netflixing Arrested Development and belly-laughing when Buster explains that he is home early because, "Army had a half day." Everyone should watch it.)

Panther Lake, Schenley Park

Actually, the runners wearing blue shorts and grey shirts with Army logos must be ROTC, but we like to say we run with Army, though in reality, they run past us. They run ahead because in the beginning stages of our "program", there is more prescribed walking than running (e.g. yesterday, we ran for 1min, walked for 4min, and repeated this 8 times.) Inevitably, we discuss other runners' techniques and form questions. Do they have good posture? Do they "break" by placing a foot too far forward when it contacts the ground? Do they bounce, and thereby uselessly exert power upwards? Heel kick? Arm position? And most importantly, are we really qualified to impute aspects of their form? No, but we have been reading about running technique, and now possess an intellectual's arm-chair view of the sport, even though our own forms are far from correct. Despite this, observation is a reasonable strategy, and Army conveniently includes a statistically motley bunch. There are text-book runners, smooth runners, bouncers, high kickers, flailers, stompers, and even a puzzling gait that swings the torso wildly from side to side. Hopefully, our own trots will improve with time. By the end of our 13-week program, we should be running for 60min, continuously--we'll see.

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