Each term, every student is required to participate in an afternoon activity. This can range from a varsity sport, such as hockey or basketball, to an art FSA. Since I don’t play any winter sport, I had a large variety of choices for my winter activity. This year, I thought about participating in the winter musical or doing conditioning. To my surprise, I ended up choosing to do Winter Running.
This is the second year in a row that I did this as my winter activity. When I first decided to do it last year, I thought I was going to hate it. I had grown up hating running, and the idea of running on trails in the woods in the middle of winter didn’t help that standpoint. To my surprise however, I quickly grew to love it. Before I could really get into running last year, however, I suffered from an ankle injury that put me out for the rest of the winter. Each day I had to go to the trainer to do physical therapy and strengthen my ankle so that I could play lacrosse in the spring.
That is why I was hesitant to participate this year. I was scared I might hurt my ankle again. Luckily, I came to my senses. From the moment we left on our first run, I instantly fell in love with Winter Running. In the time spent away from it, I had forgotten how blissful it is to lose yourself in your thoughts and take a break from the real world. I had forgotten how nice it was to get outside and get some fresh air when you are cooped up inside all day. No matter how my day went, I always looked forward to Winter Running.
Throughout the winter, the group does various different runs all throughout Groton’s campus and its vast trail system. Sometimes we run through the surrounding area as well. Each day was something new as we could mix and match our base runs and add and subtract new elements to each. Since everything was new, I never felt bogged down or bored with the runs. Another plus side to Winter Running is that it comes with a certain status or badge on campus. We have been marked as crazy people because we electively choose to run, and we electively choose to do it in the dead of winter. Whenever I get asked what my afternoon activity is, I love to see their reaction when I say Winter Running since they are always shocked.