Are you someone who enjoys running — and downtown New York architects, too? Unless you train and race only on trails, only in the country, or only in a very small town, then you may have many opportunities to enjoy downtown architecture.
- You can go on a training run through the streets of your own city’s downtown area and admire the buildings along the way.
- You can get time to appreciate the downtown buildings in another city, which you could be visiting for business or vacation, by training in that city’s downtown area.
- You can make time to get a good workout and to enjoy a foreign city’s downtown architecture when travelling abroad — by doing it on foot (on the run) instead of in a tour bus.
- You can find a group that will mix a run with an architectural-appreciation tour, and join that group for their downtown outings.
- You can participate in races in your own city, your own state, your own country, or other countries that at least partially involve running in a downtown area. Two examples of this kind of race are the New York City Marathon and the Toronto Waterfront Marathon.
So, while other runners you know may shun the idea of running through downtown streets except when absolutely required — such as when they participate in races to which they otherwise are drawn — you may be the kind of runner who gets a lot of pleasure and inspiration from downtown architecture.
But there is a challenge with running among downtown architecture. And that challenge is that this, like any other kind of architecture, tends to “fade away” or “decay” when people do not appreciate it. (Think, for example, about how the presence of graffiti on the walls of a building tends to attract more graffiti onto those same and neighboring walls.)
If you as a runner want to be able to enjoy many years of running among downtown architecture — locally or elsewhere — then you should leverage the Law of Attraction in your favor. And a simple way to do this is to make a list of statements of gratitude for downtown architecture, read the list daily or weekly, and pause after reading each statement to dwell on the good feelings that you have related to the statement.
Here are just three statements to get you started:
- I am truly grateful for how the opportunity to appreciate downtown architecture distracts me from aches and pains during my runs, especially on my longer runs.
- I love how downtown architecture inspires me to reach for higher goals in my running.
- I am thankful for every owner who takes great care of his or her downtown building and surrounding land, which makes my downtown runs safer and more enjoyable.
Make this list super-powerful by editing and extending it so that it fully expresses how much gratitude that you feel as a runner for downtown architecture.
