Running in Beauty

I run because it's who I am.

I was looking through some of my half marathon pictures from January a couple nights ago when I was trying to update my MySpace page. (Yes, I'm pretty lame for having such a page but I'm slightly addicted!) I posted one for some visual stimulation as my page is admittedly boring right now. heh

If you are wondering what exactly is pinned to my shirt, it says "Protect Our Sacred Mountain" and has an image of the San Francisco Peaks near Flagstaff, AZ. It is one of four mountains that are sacred to the Navajo people and is the subject of much controversy and court battles between a number of Arizona tribes and the Arizona Snow Bowl because the Arizona Snow Bowl planned to use wastewater from Flagstaff to make artificial snow for their ski resort because natural snow fall, right now, is sparse. As you can imagine, tribal people became outraged because the act was blatant disrespect for our religion, jeopardizes our freedom of religion, and will harm our cultural way of life. You can read more about the issue if you'd like at Save the Peaks.

I personally believed that by running for this cause, I was sending some of my energy from that trying feat to help in the fight. It really did keep me going during those moments when I so desperately wanted to walk for more than a couple minutes.

There are a number of reasons why I love to run but I must say that among the top reasons are because it's a part of Navajo culture...it is who I am as a Navajo woman. Parents and grandparents regale us with stories of how their parents or grandparents woke them up before the crack of dawn to run. They ran toward the east direction because this the east is where all the good blessings in life come from. Essentially, by running this way, we are being blessed to have a better life. There are also stories of how my grandparents were forced to wake up early during the winter, run with little body coverage, and had to take an icy cold bath at the end of the run. This was all to toughen a child to help them withstand harsh physical elements.

It was also a practice done during the round-up of the Navajos in the mid-nineteenth century by the U.S. Government for incarceration in a barren environmental prison that was to be their new reservation in NM called Ft. Sumner. From Navajoland to Ft. Sumner is approximately 300 miles and my ancestors were forced to march the whole distance. This tragic period in our history is referred to as the Long Walk.

So, in order to avoid capture from cavalry, parents and grandparents trained their kids to run hard, long, and fast and to become "tough".

Sometime during my runs, I think about all of those things. I am happy that I am continuing in a tradition and I firmly believe that I am being blessed on each outing. Running to me is so much more than PRs, distances, and races (although I do love the races!)...it's a part of who I am as a Navajo.

The Workout:
REST

etched in stone by carmen @ 9:11 AM