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A lot of people in real life, especially those that I have known for most of my life, have started to ask me something recently: why did you start running?

Of course, the easy and initial answer is that during the breakup, it’s the only thing that stopped my brain from thinking about it. Instead I thought about how miserable I was to be on the treadmill or elliptical or whatever, and how much longer was left until the timer went out. (And then I’d hop off, and the thoughts would start again, and I’d get on another machine.)

Of course, that’s ten months behind me now. In those ten months, I’ve started to think while I run instead of praying for the racing thoughts to stop. I run for different reasons, now.

When I was a senior in high school, I lost one of my closest friends in a car crash. It remains in the top three most life-changing things that has ever happened to me. He was a cross-country runner, and probably the greatest one I have ever seen. Beyond that, he was a great person – one of the greatest I have known. He was kind to everyone, he was friends with everyone. He was bright, had a full ride to college, and his sense of humor is one that I will never forget. His yearbook quote is one that I have kept in mind and never forgotten throughout the years. Run like you don’t have tomorrow to do it. I would have it pinned up on mood boards in dorm rooms and apartments, but I never really let it motivate me to do what it simply states – instead, I let it push me to run from other things. I miss him every day and even though I know that over the years, he and I would have drifted apart like so many other high school friendships, I feel very close to him while I run. I think of him when I don’t want to finish a workout or when I don’t want to get out of bed. Sometimes I still don’t get out of bed, but I am grateful for the chance to. Some people don’t have even that.

I’ve talked a lot about my aunt who passed away, and the races NP and I run in her honor, the fundraising work we do. I run for her too. She was so full of life and I would hate to hurt her memory by not living my own life to the fullest. I run to remember.

So if someone were to ask me today, “why do you run?” I would be so happy to share their stories. To talk about these great people I run for, because they don’t have tomorrow to do it.

Why do you run?