I found a great new way to run and I swear it works so well for me! I warmly welcome – no I blazing hotly welcome – you to try this out and tell me if it worked for you.

My biggest achilles heel when I run is my short attention span. When people advertise the draw of running (getting in touch with nature, getting time to think for yourself), those solitary and lengthy qualities of running are precisely what turn me away. After a quarter mile, even if I could run more I get so bored that I stop. I’ve tried running with a buddy, but even though your are very enthusiastic about that at first, eventually you don’t have the energy to coordinate your schedules and one of you drops out. I’ve tried running with music, and that gets boring too because you’re just passively listening (also my headphones keep falling out).

Now I have finally found a way to keep myself interested while running! When I was little my mom taught me a Chinese nursery rhyme:

One frog, one mouth, two eyes, four legs.

Two frogs, two mouths, four eyes, eight legs. and so on.

I started repeating that while running, timing the counts to my steps. Even though it was the most mechanical mental activity, it sustained my interest enough to keep my legs going after two laps. I realized that if I channeled this energy into memorizing something productive, then I could have a rather large repertoire by the end of the term.

I printed out the Gettysburg Address in huge font. Clutching it in my hand, I started jogging and reciting. Each time I took a step, I said one word.

Four.

Four score.

Four score and.

Four score and twenty.

After two laps (I usually run two laps around the meadow a day. Don’t ask me what distance that is, I’m guessing .75 miles?) I had managed to make it all the way to the end of the first sentence. I think I’ll finish the whole thing in about a month’s time. That might be painfully slow, but the exercise isn’t really about the memorization. It’s about the motivation to run. Now I really want to run so that I can continue playing this game, and while running I am motivated to keep in rhythm rather than slow down. Also, I bet that if I memorize the entire speech in this slow but paced manner, it will escape my mind much less easily than when I had to memorize it by rote in elementary school.

Maybe when I go back to America, I will be able to recite all the important speeches!