Represent Running so kindly gave me a list of ideas for my guest post on the Represent Running blog, and I laughed when I saw “you can write about why you love the Bay Area” — funny not because the Bay Area isn’t lovable… funny only because I’ve only lived here a month.

And then, boom. I have a topic.

Hey. I’m Erin, I’ve been running since I chased after, and then was chased by, the boys on my elementary school playground back in the day, but I didn’t get into the marathoning business until 2007. The marathon is my favorite distance so far simply because so much goes into that distance, and nothing—nothing—is guaranteed. It’s not even necessarily a mile-to-mile type of event; hell, it can be minute-to-minute. Everything is on the table with the mary.

One of my many reasons I love to run, and train for marathons, is that running literally takes me places I would have never otherwise explored, experienced, or seen. Case in point: my family and I just relocated to San Jose from Chicago, on December 21, pre-Polar Vortex version 1, 2, and 3.0. After living in Chicago for nearly all of my adult life, I can attribute much of what I’ve learned about the city from what I’ve seen of it on foot.

So, too, has begun my experience in the Bay, generically, or San Jose, more specifically. Since moving here just over a month ago, my running shoes have delivered me to several different pockets of the Bay Area and have, in the process, given me tons of opportunities to see new places, meet new people, and, especially helpful when you’re the new kid in town, to get my bearings and figure out where the hell I’m going. My husband isn’t nearly as amused as I am when we’re driving and I suddenly blurt out the turn-by-turn directions of my recent run, when I realize that we’re traveling over the same street I traversed earlier. 😉

Running is one of those enviable sports because it is so incredibly accessible. It can be as complicated as you make it, and sometimes, the best types of runs are the simplest, the ones where you just leave home and see where your feet take you. Maybe it’ll be a new trail or path, or a new neighborhood, or even just a different direction than your usual route; the options—and opportunities—are endless.

That’s the beauty of it, the purity of our sport.

I run because I like to explore and, on occasion, to get lost.

Read More from Erin at https://www.runningruminations.com/