discover (verb) to see, get knowledge of, learn of, find, or find out; gain sight or knowledge of something previously unknown or unseen

One of my favorite things about running is being able to discover new places. Whether it’s just down the road or thousands of miles away, running gives me the ability to learn about an area that is new to me. I just love that.

A few years ago, I snapped that picture above on a run. It remains one of my favorite pictures to this day. When I was running in the countryside, that view just floored me. I couldn’t believe that a mile down the road from where my father-in-law lives, there was a whole other world. Had I not mustered up the courage to just go a little further and look for something new, I would have just been stuck running on the same road time and time again.

I suppose a part of why I love running is that this discovery of new places, give me a glimpse at just how much I can miss if I’m not running. If I was driving down this same country road, nine times out of ten I would not have noticed the way the corn field sloped down and was filled with mud from the recent rainfall. The red silo and barn, crooked fence posts and the hazy morning light would have just been a passing blur had I not taken the opportunity to go running down this road.

Discovery is a beautiful gift and you don’t even have to go thousands of miles away to unwrap it. It’s right in your neighborhood, in our backyards. Running down a road or taking the unmarked trail I never noticed before (usually) has a pleasant way of surprising me. 

*This post is a part of a 31 Day Writing Challenge in which I celebrate all the reasons I run. You can find links to all the posts here.