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Why I Run - Why I Run - Sonja Gates

Sonja Gates
Club: Phoenix, Montreal

This will be an attempt to describe “why I run”. 

Over 25 years of running, the reasons have varied. Running has always been a natural activity for me.  As a kid, I loved to play “kick the can”, “tag” and “hide and go seek”, as well as skip rope and play hopscotch. I was naturally “fit”. It just seemed I was always running.  These games are now defunct unfortunately, so if you’re under fifty, you probably have never heard of these activities. 

Later on, I was very adept at running from evil forces (don’t ask), and even later, when I played very bad technique tennis, I often outran my opponent. My opponents eyed me enviously. Oh, what a thrill that was!  

Then when I was around 27, after spending several years sedentarily studying and writing exams, I noticed that I was an unfit blob. Being the mid to late 70’s, the running craze had recently begun and seeing runners loping along looking “cool” and “fit”, we decided (Jim and I) one day, that we were going to become “fit” again, and start running.   It looked easy enough. We were going to become fit and cool.

One evening, in shorts and new runners, Jim and I furtively went out (it was dark so no-one could see us). We made it 2 blocks before we conked out, gasping for air.  We were so dejected and extremely humbled. This running business was certainly not as easy as it looked.  It was going to take a lot more pain and determination to get “fit” and look “cool”. I must admit, that since it seemed rather difficult this had a special allure for me.  So off to the pool I headed (don’t know what Jim did) 5 times a week to swim laps, with my bad inefficient style, but what the heck, it challenged my pathetic cardio-respiratory system. One year later, Jim and I gave it another try. WOW! What a difference. We could now run at least ½ hour before stopping.  Exhilarating. We were now hooked. 

Over the next couple of years we ran many races all over the place, from 10 to 20K.  We were totally clueless about training. For one thing we thought shoes were worn till the treads were worn out, and there was no place left for Shoe Goo.  Subsequently, we both developed stress fractures, me in my foot, Jim in his groin (don’t ask, but he liked his physio). I in particular could run forever, so in my infinite wisdom, decided I was going to do a marathon. Well Montreal 1982, here I came. Ran mostly 10Ks, one 20K, and one 30K race (came 3rd in AG) in 2’22, 3 weeks before the big day in preparation.  Hey I was ready, and I was dumb.  Hit the wall so bad. Finished in a paltry 3:48, of course the last 10K I hobbled in 1:30. 

Too bad they didn’t have books like “Running for Dummies” then, I sure could have used it.  We met a lot of strange and interesting people along the way, some of them really old (in their early 40’s)— my how age changes our perceptions. Then, along came the babies — First little Chris, then the following year Allison and a mere 45 minutes later out popped Michelle. Well this put a cramp on my running, but I still chugged a lugged, but didn’t start racing again until I was in my early 40’s. 

My first after baby race was Ste Anne’s 10K. I didn’t have a clue as to my speed. Expected to finish in 41 minutes (my pre-baby times).  When I got to the finish line and saw 47 minutes, I almost fell over in disappointment. I couldn’t believe I had gotten so slow. I decided something had to be done. 

The following year I joined Boreal, met some really great people, had a great time running, and actually learned to run at different speeds, and longer distances. The first time I ran 17K, I found it daunting, since I hadn’t run over 10K since my “marathon” in 1982. I ran with Frank, Mary and Catherine.  They made me feel so comfortable and confident.  Over the years I ran a lot of 5, 10, and ½ marathons. In 1999 I ran Ottawa ½ in 1’39, just as a long run with Mary. I hadn’t even trained, we decided the Thursday before to drive up the morning of the race. I came in 4th in my AG. After that I decided to train for it for the following year.  At the end of Feb 2000 I broke my ankle skiing, so that put a stop on the planned ½ in Ottawa. I came back running pretty quickly, started running races that summer, but developed two stress fractures in my tibia.  That took almost 8 months to heal.  Unable to run for almost a year due to these injuries, I realized how much I define myself as a “runner”, and not running put a big void in my sense of who I was.  I started feeling like a running imposter.  Logged on to “Cool Running”, to get my running fix.  Then things were starting to fall into place again, I was running, but I noticed that I couldn’t run far without getting a large cramp in my left leg.  Two years of investigations revealed nothing. Finally a doctor told me I had a blocked artery in my left leg. The main artery to my left artery was 80% blocked? Unbelievable!

Surgery could repair it, but I had to wait for that for 6 months. All these 2-1/2 years I cross-trained, cycling (one legged), X-trainer, but what I really wanted to do was run. Finally in Sept 2004, I had a 4 hour auto-graft surgery to repair my blocked artery, and it was a miracle. My leg was fixed. I could run again. With all the cross training, and my new found sport (swimming), started doing triathlons, which I might add, are a blast. This past spring, I was back running, almost back to where I was before (factoring age into it), ran a few 1/2s, did a few triathlons this summer, and then again I hit a slump, still don’t know what it is, but nevertheless my legs feel heavy and stiff off and on, and have resolved to running with the aged in the club — Gunar is my new running partner and we share stories about getting old. All in all, I love running, will run until the day I die (I hope), don’t expect to run the times I ran in the past, but hope to enjoy the people and the sport for as long as I can. Basically, running is what partly defines me, just like my career, my family and my hair color.(it’s still natural Gunar, I haven’t had to resort to artificial colors yet). So over the years, running was “natural”, a way to get fit and fun competition, and finally defined who I was.

Sonja Gates