Proving that 1 + 1 can equal more than 2.
Running can be one of those things many of us have a love-hate relationship with.
The before bit? Torture. The bit where we stare out the window, listing all of the perfectly valid reasons why today doesn't need to be a 'run day'. Why it can wait til tomorrow.
Or the day after.
But once you're actually out there it's always worth it, and you come back buzzing and so happy that you went. Without fail a run, a walk, some movement, will shake something free. Will trigger an idea about something, maybe story related, maybe not, but mostly - normally - something useful.
Today was a day like that. The kind where the reasons-not-to-go list was way longer than the let's-do-this-thing list.
Leggings on, sports bra wrestled into, breakfast done. And still...staring out the window searching for permission not to go.
Then my husband walked down the stairs. Like me he was procrastinating. To run, or not to run?
Sometimes we run together, and when we do it's the best kind of run. He can go further and faster, but that doesn't matter. What matters is getting out there and running, together. And today I knew he needed it as much as I did.
More. Work was demanding and he needed the break.
"Come on, Thompson," I said to him, and myself. "Let’s go."
With a nod, we strapped on our trainers and went.
It didn’t need to be far, it never needs to be far.
5k, which turned to six, plus a saunter and a natter home. As usual, it felt great. Great to have been out, and to have seen that lovely yellow ball in the sky, and great to have a moment together to chat, about nothing in particular.
And that's the thing. We’d each needed that run for different reasons, and left to our own devices probably (most certainly) wouldn’t have gone.
But we did.
And it made all the difference.
Two people, half an hour, and all the better for it. Mentally and physically. Individually we might not have gone, but together we did.
That's the power of two.
In writing, as in running, it works the same way. You might procrastinate, stare out the window and tell yourself you can't. Or you don't need to. But alongside another, you can, and you will.