I ran to catch my breath.

Then the virus hit. The world shut down. My job fell apart. I had to lay off my team. In a single day we dismissed most of the company. All the work, the synergy, the positivity evaporated. The lights shut off. The building hollowed out. Those of us who remained felt lost. We hyperventilated on hope. I ran to catch my breath.

RUNNING THESE ROADS BY AMYE HARTFIELD 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 84

In 2020 I ran 549 miles. If I’d run west I’d have made it to the Mexican border near Ciudad Juárez, east I’d be in New Orleans, north just outside of Wichita, Kansas, and south at a little store called San Vicente in Tamaulipas, Mexico.

I ran to lose weight. 2019 was for me a year of over-indulgence. I needed to get my body together. So I ran toward the goal of thinness.

I was starting a new job, a new profession, and had a new team to lead. I needed to get my act together.

I ran too for the sake of my lungs. In my 20s and most of my 30s I was a smoker. I imagined my lungs might now be like those o…