Editor's Page . . .

Running for Recreation, Leisure, and Life

by Robert P. Humke

Introduction

There is a good chance that the reader of the following piece is at least a sometime jogger or runner. So it may be possible to find some personal identification with the thoughts and feelings presented. Non-runners, on the other hand, may see herein strong evidence of the type of disturbed personality they had only previously suspected within the cult of track and road runners.

Why Do You Run?

I run because it is an intense physical experience that my body seems to crave. Stretching tendon and muscle, straining heart and lungs—this hurts every day. But I feel better when I hurt a little. Every workout is a physical test I strive to pass. A soothing mid-day shower may lead to an afternoon lag in production, but soon there's bounce back in my walk.

Why Do You Run?

I run because it aids my mental processes and is an important psychological experience. While jogging I can deal with problems in a detached, objective manner, and sometimes even find solutions. Some days it's necessary to push myself to the locker room, but the after-workout feeling is always worth it. My concentration during exercise varies from acute awareness of where I am and how I feel to a flowing feeling of I-could-go-on-forever. Of course I never do.

Why Do You Run?

I run because it aids my self-esteem and from that, builds greater self-confidence in other things I do. When I am successful in sprint races I know that not many in my age group can run as fast as I can. (After all, I never know from whom I may have to run.) I enjoy that knowledge, and sometimes my pride leads me to share it with others, as I am doing now.

Why Do You Run?

I run because doing so is part of my quest for individuality and personal freedom. I am free to jog through serene cemeteries in Illinois or friendly forests in Wisconsin, to dash around cushioned tracks or up challenging slopes. I'm free to run as fast as I can or as slow as I like—for as long as I can or wish. No one tells me when to start or stop, and only my own watch provides a self-imposed record of time gone by. I seldom use it.

Why Do You Run?

I run because it re-creates me every day. It helps me become what I want to become. It is a leisure experience. It is an important part of living.

Bob Humke is Community Recreation Specialist, Office of Recreation and Park Resources, and Assistant Professor, Department of Leisure Studies, University of Illinois, Urbana- Champaign.

INTRODUCTION OF A FRIEND AND COLLEAGUE

This issue is the first, at least for the "new" editorial team, in which original cartoons are offered. (The drawings featured in the Creative Corner section last issue were not spoofs at the field but conscientious attempts by thinking young people to describe important aspects of leisure services.)

The cartoons interspersed among these pages are products of the rich imagination and sharp drawing skills of Donald J. Molnar. Don Molnar has been a landscape architect and campus planner in the Office of Capital Programs at the University of Illinois since 1963. Prior to that he was employed by the private firm of Simonds and Simonds in Pittsburgh.

Besides the variety of work he does for all campuses of the University, Mr. Molnar has regularly served public and private agencies as a consultant in landscape and site design for parks, recreation, housing, and commercial developments. He also illustrated the park planning text, Anatomy of a Park. Current projects include joint authorship and illustration of a new park planning book based on citizen participation and tentatively titled A People Process for Community Park Planning.

Illinois Parks and Recreation 6 March/April, 1980