Jane Burk in Plano, Texas is spending a year Running and Blogging. She explains, "I am writing a 500+ word blog about running. I am a morning runner. After each run, I would write something. It could be about the run itself, the route I took, the things I saw, or the people I ran with."...
Why did you decide to do this project? Here is the entry in 2010 that started the blogging series.
I was about 50 miles shy of achieving the goal in 2010. That year I traveled four times to China to be with my ailing mother. The same year I lost my mother to cancer. I wrote a few pieces about my mother, especially the gifts she imparted to me during her last day in the world. It was through running I found calm in life. It was through blogging I found balance in emotion.
How has doing a yearlong/daily project affected your life? I kept blogging for the entire 2010 (after each run), but stopped in 2011. Fast forward to 2012 I resumed blogging. After my morning run and before a day is over, I'd write a 500-word piece describing my running experience.
Just like running, blogging had good days and bad days. On a good day my eye would observe the tiny changes, and my blog would capture them in details -- the change in the air, gossips on the run, or strange facial movement. I also read more attentively to authors I like. My blogging would imitate a clean and brief writing styles of my favorite writers, yet I want to project an image in the readers' head when simple and concise verbs are used.
English is not my first language. Writing with a recognizable personal style is harder to accomplish. The 3 to 4 times a week of writing help me to improve incrementally. Now looking back, I can proudly say how far I have gone.
Read Jane's tales of running HERE.
Why did you decide to do this project? Here is the entry in 2010 that started the blogging series.
"During one of the freezing cold morning runs in early January, Michael and I struggled uphill in his neighbood near the University of Richmond. Luckily the darkness hid the steep ascends from our very naked eye. Only the heart pounding and puffed breathing revealed to us that we were conquering a hill. At the top of the hill while catching a breath, I asked Michael if he wanted to renew our vow to run 2010 kilometers in 2010. "Yeah," an excited Michael repsonded, "It is totally doable."
That day I plugged in the number into a KM to mile conversion. 2010 km is 1249 miles -- a bit more than 100 miles a month, about 26 miles a week. This is really achievable. During the fall marathon training, I easily rack up a 40 to 50 miles a week.
The next day I bought a Ultimate Work Log on sale, and started to record my January miles I have conquered."
I was about 50 miles shy of achieving the goal in 2010. That year I traveled four times to China to be with my ailing mother. The same year I lost my mother to cancer. I wrote a few pieces about my mother, especially the gifts she imparted to me during her last day in the world. It was through running I found calm in life. It was through blogging I found balance in emotion.
How has doing a yearlong/daily project affected your life? I kept blogging for the entire 2010 (after each run), but stopped in 2011. Fast forward to 2012 I resumed blogging. After my morning run and before a day is over, I'd write a 500-word piece describing my running experience.
Just like running, blogging had good days and bad days. On a good day my eye would observe the tiny changes, and my blog would capture them in details -- the change in the air, gossips on the run, or strange facial movement. I also read more attentively to authors I like. My blogging would imitate a clean and brief writing styles of my favorite writers, yet I want to project an image in the readers' head when simple and concise verbs are used.
English is not my first language. Writing with a recognizable personal style is harder to accomplish. The 3 to 4 times a week of writing help me to improve incrementally. Now looking back, I can proudly say how far I have gone.
Read Jane's tales of running HERE.
