我非常討厭跑步,直到50歲我改變了這一點
On Feb. 1, 2018, I put on a pair of sneakers and went for a run for the first time in more than 30 years.
2018年2月1日，我穿上運動鞋開始跑步，這是我30多年來的第一次跑步經歷。
To say I was never a runner is a mild way to sum up a life of active antipathy to the activity. Exercise was never my thing - undertaken periodically, at best, in an effort to force my body to become a smaller size.
我從來不跑步是我這一生反感活動的溫和說辭。我從來都不是鍛鍊愛好者--充其量不過是定期鍛鍊，以使身材更爲苗條。
Yet here I was in my 50s, feeling heavy and out of shape, in a pair of sneakers I bought when I took tennis lessons in 1999 and an oversized neon pink sweatshirt, gasping my way again along the pavement.
但現在我50多歲了，感覺自己很笨重、身材走樣，所以穿上了1999年上網球課時買的那雙運動鞋，套上寬大的霓虹粉運動衫，再次氣喘吁吁地在人行道上跑了起來。
I blame technology. It was my computer that got me to run again - and not just because sitting at it for years without exercising had gotten me into bad shape. On social media, I vicariously followed other people's fitness successes: an overweight mom who became a marathon runner, a friend who walked and ran off half her body weight, a music critic colleague who tweeted her day's playlist after each run.
我將其歸咎於技術。電腦讓我再次跑了起來--而不僅是因爲多年來久坐不動使我身材走樣。在社交媒體上，我間接關注了他人的健身成功歷程：一位成爲馬拉松運動員的超重母親，一位走着跑着減掉了一半體重的朋友，一位每次跑完步就會分享音樂單的音樂評論家同事。
Online, I kept seeing articles about the benefits of exercise; if it were an over-the-counter drug, one doctor said, everyone would buy it. And then there was an app: Couch25K (that's "couch to 5K"), a program that led you from Square 1 to running five kilometers in just eight wee. In my supposedly busy life, joining a gym had always seemed like an insurmountable hurdle. But I can always download an app.
在網上，我總是看到有關運動好處的文章；一位醫生說，如果這是非處方藥，每個人都會去買着吃的。再之後，Couch25K應用出現（即"5公里跑"），幫助初學者在8周的時間內從零起點跑完5公里。在我本該忙碌的生活中，去健身房健身似乎是一個無法逾越的障礙，但下載應用的時間還是有的。
Then I met up with one of my oldest friends for breakfast. "I've started running," she said, and maybe that, coming from a lifelong habit of sisterly competition, is what pushed me over the edge and got me actually to start a couple of weeks later.
後來，早餐時我遇到了一位老朋友。"我開始跑步了，"她說道，也許是因爲長久以來姐妹競爭的習慣，我也受到了影響，並於幾周後開始跑了起來。
And the beauty of running is that it's solitary - nobody has to know how long you've been doing it. Winded? For all that passerby knows, you've already run five miles. Or so you tell yourself.
跑步的美妙之處在於它是孤獨的--沒人知道你跑了多久。氣喘吁吁？所有的路人都知道，你已經跑了5公里啦。或者，你就是這麼心理暗示自己的。
