It has been quite some time since I went out for a morning run, so I might have been forgiven for blowing off the running during my 10-day stay at Fairleigh Dickinson, where I am beginning work on my master’s of fine arts in creative writing.
Running on the FDU campus presents an interesting challenge that, given my recent running history, is a bit daunting. The campus is nearly all hill and valley, many of the inclines pushing 45 degress and more. That’s a brutal climb generally, but when you haven’t been out and you aren’t used to hill work, it becomes nearly insurmountable. The uphill runs are enough to stop you in your tracks — and I had to slow to a near-walk several times — but the downhills may be worse, forcing momentum on you and badly stressing the legs. Downhill essentially is one long continuous pounding.
But I have to do it, have to push through this. My goal this week is to get out about five or six times at about two miles a clip, and hope that the hills open things up for me on far more level ground at home.
- Send me an e-mail.
- Read poetry at The Subterranean.
- Suburban Pastoral, a chapbook by Hank Kalet, available here.
Hank Kalet 