Welcome to Run For Fun

Hi! I'm a 57-year-old guy who has begun fitness running, after not being much of an athlete for most of my life. I call this blog, in which I will report on my experiences, "Run For Fun" because one of the things I have learned in life is that if it isn't fun to do, I won't do it.

I didn't start running because it was fun, though.

I started because it seemed a natural thing to do on my fitness walks.

But my fitness walks weren't really motivated by either fun or fitness. (How complicated things can get!) No, I started — actually, resumed, having let them slide — taking regular walks because it helped my stomach woes.

I'd been having symptoms of what seemed to be gastroesophageal reflux disease, or GERD, possibly associated with a hiatal hernia. The medications weren't helping. After months of distress, changes I'd made in my eating habits seemed to have caused too much of a weight loss — that's right, a weight loss. I was getting too skinny, and my new eating habits had stopped offsetting my stomach woes, to boot. What to do?

I reasoned that reclining after meals to read or watch TV, my usual habit, aggravated my symptoms, so I ought to find something else to do — something that would keep me upright for a while. I decided to walk for exercise once more. (I'd walked three or four times a week in the past. Having lost my walking partner, I'd slipped to one or two, then one, then maybe none. Now that I look back on it, my stomach symptoms seem to have increased in step with that exercise decrease.)

Anyway, after finding that regular walking was helping ease my stomach distress, I started mixing in some jogging. That evolved into daily walking/jogging before breakfast. That's where I am right now.

My stomach problems are perhaps 70% better. And I know what I'm doing is making me fitter and healthier for (it is to be hoped) a longer and more problem-free maturity. Still, I have to admit that what gets me out there every morning (except Sunday, when I rest) is that it's fun to run!