I was always athletic, even as a child starting, I suppose, with softball.  Add to that tennis, years of basketball camp, and volleyball.  I even scored a small tennis scholarship to a school I decided not to attend.  I spent my high school years training, lifting weights, and running suicides when not actually playing in competitive games.  If you played sports in high school, the word suicide likely just made you cringe. I always hated distance running. At the start of each new season and sport, we’d always start with distance running and oh how I dreaded that. When I was 25, I began running.  I wanted to stay in shape, train for a long-distance bike ride, and I was broke.  Running is free. Near my apartment in Brookline, Massachusetts, there was this great running location called The Emerald Necklace.  I didn’t have a routine.  I’d run there in the afternoon or even–eek–at night (oh the things I’d go back and tell my 25 year old self). I was in the best shape of my …