Why I Run Reason #2 - For Mom

Three years ago, almost to the day, my mom told me while I was heading toward the showers that I was starting to grow a belly.

It was my first year of fellowship, work at the hospital was tough, and I was spending every moment I had out of the hospital studying for boards. Although I was never exactly an exercise freak per se, I was always active throughout medical school and residency, playing different types of sports through the warm days and going skiing and snowboarding during the winter. But with the challenges of new job responsibilities, old friends moving out of town, and preparing for an exam which served to legitimize the last three years of my medical livelihood, carving out time to be active was not on the agenda. So when my mom noted, half-jokingly or not, that I was “showing”, I vowed to myself that once boards were over, a dramatic lifestyle change was going to be in order such that I’d never have to subject myself to such speculation again. That winter, on the day after I took my boards, I enrolled in a two-year membership at New York Sports Club and started the campaign that my brother and I aptly coined “Buff By Summer”.

I’m not sure if I ever achieved “buffness” by the next summer as intended, because I discovered running during the spring (thanks to my friend Matt, my first running mentor, who convinced me that 4 miles in the park was just an excuse to be in shape for summer basketball), and began to use the gym exclusively for the treadmill. But, I’m certain that if mom never made me look and wonder at the mirror that night, I’d never even know I needed to exercise in the first place.

In actuality, there are a lot more reasons why my mom motivates me to run, but to list them all would require a whole separate blog altogether. Suffice it to say that she was the first family exercise freak, always out for a jog before heading out to work and was the most excited for me when she found out I was running the marathon (even though she thought a marathon was 10K long). I’m not sure if she’s going to read this, but if she does, “Thanks mom!” Because of you, I run.