A Runner?

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While I have long enjoyed participating in sports that are based upon short bursts of intense sprinting, I have never particularly enjoyed jogging/long-distance running or sports with a major aerobic endurance component. I have, of course, done some jogging/running during practice for sports and I have regularly jogged/ran for distances of up to approximately a mile and a half for fitness training. But I am not shocked that nobody has ever labeled me as a “runner.” Well, aside from that one time.

I did have a former girlfriend tell me decades after we had dated that I had a tendency to run. I didn’t dig too deeply into the statement, although I suspect that I knew from where she might have been coming with such a statement.

After our relationship ended and while she was dating another guy, I left the North Carolina coast and moved to the Triad region of North Carolina. I didn’t have the financial aid or the means to return to school. At the time I was working a dead end job. A friend had indicated that he needed someone in a teacher assistant role in his classroom and that he thought that I could be hired. So I applied, was interviewed, was hired, and I moved to Greensboro. I figured that I could work in the school and eventually get my undergraduate degree.

I spent approximately two school years working in a Behavioral-Emotional Handicapped (BEH) classroom. Then I had the opportunity to work construction in the desert east of San Diego along the United States-Mexico border. The money was good and I was able to save even more money than I might have otherwise, since I was able to stay at my father’s apartment rent-free. After a year in the desert, I returned home to North Carolina and I resumed my studies at East Carolina University where I was only twelve hours shy of graduating. A year later I had graduated.

I admit that my decision to leave the North Carolina coast was motivated by more than just the pursuit of a better job in a field that I had considered entering. It hurt to know that the woman I loved was seeing another guy. I had family in the area, but no real reason to stay. After all, I could always come back to visit.

While my ex-girlfriend and I talked on the phone a few times while I was living in California, we didn’t see each other again for more than two decades. Oh, she suggested that I fly home to see her and I suggested that she fly out to see me in California, but we didn’t see each other again until I had moved to the Triangle following my graduation from ECU. By that point, I had also earned a graduate degree.

I have always enjoyed getting behind the wheel and driving around when I had things on my mind and wanted to think. When I lived on the coast, I also used to walk on the beach day or night in any season when I wanted to think. But the car has long been an escape and an opportunity to clear my head. My coworker and roommate in Greensboro once jokingly told someone that “Greg likes to drive through bad neighborhoods at night.” That wasn’t exactly true. I just used to drive around downtown Greensboro sometimes.

When my ex-girlfriend said this, I had been driving out of town on short trips. I made a handful of trips into Virginia to go sightseeing on my own. One night I even drove to South of the Border for tacos. At the time I was dealing with some angst and drama at home. My feelings were all jumbled up and conflicted. I wasn’t exactly running away, but I may have been running laps in a certain way of seeing things.

I am now living in rural Northern Illinois, which is as surprising to me as anyone. I had once been determined to never leave the coast or to move north of the Mason-Dixon Line. I would not categorize myself as a “ramblin’ man”, but I have definitely rambled.

The song by the Zac Brown Band, “Colder Weather”, tells a story of conflict that arises from a truck driver’s love of the "winding road.” Below is a link to the music video. Enjoy! Perhaps I will see you down the road.