The why of fear – Part 1:  A cold day’s run . . .

For various reasons, over the past few months I’ve spent a lot of time and energy focusing on the concept of fear.  It may have started with all the hype over Alex Honnold’s live free solo climb of Taipei 101, but it became a deeper focus after some recent runs I did in the bitter cold this winter.  I’ll share more on that in a bit.  But first, regardless of the trigger, fear has become somewhat of an obsession of mine lately.  So much so, that when I first thought about writing more on it, I felt like I needed time to sort out my thoughts.  After all, I already wrote the simple version of my overcoming fears post in, “Do one thing every day that scares you.”  While that blog was about my experiences overcoming fears and the need to get out of my comfort zone, what I believe is missing – and what has been starkly on my mind lately – is the why. Why it is so important to me to overcome fear?  This is part one of the answer, and it begins with the story of my runs.