This is the emoji that seemed to be hovering over my husband’s and daughter’s heads whenever I was walking with one or both of them before I started running: 🙄🙄. (For those of you who haven’t updated your operating systems, that’s the eyes-cast-heavenwards emoji.)  And on a real face, rather than a yellow circle, it comes with a heavy dose of “why are you so slow”, “come on”, “you can’t possibly be that slow”, and more.

I have probably, but maybe not, mentioned before, that I inherited the Albert gene.  What is the Albert gene, you say?  My dad’s name was Albert (a lovely man, so lucky to have had such a wonderful, albeit slow, dad), and he was SLOW.  In everything.  And pretty much late for everything too.  As he got older, he got slower and slower.  (He died at 92, so he got VERY slow.)  Walking around New York City with him when he was in his late 80s was excruciating.  Everyone, including me, who inherited the gene, just couldn’t walk that slowly.  It was physically impossible.

Now, I wasn’t as slow as Albert, but I was always trailing Jim and/or Isabel, always getting the groans and gripes about how slow I was.  When Jim and I went to Venice for our honeymoon, 25 years ago, I say the sight I saw best was Jim’s back hurrying down the narrow paths in front of me.

A couple of years ago, when I had just started running, I was doing better.  Jim and Isabel were so used to me being miles behind them that they would stop and look behind them, assuming that they would have to wait for me at every light, every turning.  But I was always right behind them.  They couldn’t quite absorb this after so many years of griping and groaning.

This past weekend I went to New York City with Isabel and – wait for it – I kept up or 😲😲😲 (amazed emojis) was faster.  And it wasn’t hard, it felt natural and good, except when trapped behind masses of meandering, slower-than-Albert tourists around Rockefeller Center.  (We absolutely had to go there to use my 15% off coupon at Anthropologie – it’s my birthday month.  Why oh why did they have to put the store in the middle of tourist hell???  That’s where I found the snail parade in the picture.  The glass balls are separate.  A crystal ball for a very slow seer???)

Banish the old, doddering part of you and get out there and run!  It feels so good not to have to struggle to keep up!  A lovely bonus to the long, long list of running’s benefits.  Just do it!  It’s worth it!