A pre-requisite for the course is to have experience and be comfortable running. I was in a semi-athletic point in my life and felt like it could be a fun challenge for me. Maybe there was a part of me that also wanted to get brownie points with my girlfriend, who ran track and cross country all through high school and now runs at a collegiate level. Most of all, I was excited to have an excuse to explore parts of Cincinnati I don’t frequent.
I had not considered the possibility of a symbiotic relationship between writing and running until this course. The class would be assigned online readings on top of the required texts as the subject matter for the weekly blog entry. On many meeting days the class would first go on a run, then go back to the classroom to discuss the readings and blogs. This format seemed to elicit the most meaningful conversations and we discussed how running can reinvigorate the creative parts in the brain. As the semester neared the end, I noticed that the weekly running regimen was helping me maintain focus better in my studies. It was interesting to read excerpts from articles and hear from classmates how running affects them in similar ways.
A topic of discussion was the type of environment in which each of us prefers to run. Green space and urban were compared but most of us enjoyed running in the former. From there I came up with my final project idea of mapping out routes to run within Cincinnati parks. My professor loved the idea so I ran with it. I used the experience I gained during the semester with Google MyMaps to make a user-friendly tool for UC students who may not have regular access to a car but still would like to go to Cincinnati parks for a run.
I had not considered the possibility of a symbiotic relationship between writing and running until this course. The class would be assigned online readings on top of the required texts as the subject matter for the weekly blog entry. On many meeting days the class would first go on a run, then go back to the classroom to discuss the readings and blogs. This format seemed to elicit the most meaningful conversations and we discussed how running can reinvigorate the creative parts in the brain. As the semester neared the end, I noticed that the weekly running regimen was helping me maintain focus better in my studies. It was interesting to read excerpts from articles and hear from classmates how running affects them in similar ways.
A topic of discussion was the type of environment in which each of us prefers to run. Green space and urban were compared but most of us enjoyed running in the former. From there I came up with my final project idea of mapping out routes to run within Cincinnati parks. My professor loved the idea so I ran with it. I used the experience I gained during the semester with Google MyMaps to make a user-friendly tool for UC students who may not have regular access to a car but still would like to go to Cincinnati parks for a run.