![]() ![]() She remembers falling to the floor in the living room of her parents’ house, curling her body around a framed picture of Reagan and Grant that she clutched to her chest. On the day her children died, Karen could not move. Because they’re in a wheelchair or in a hospital bed, or because they’re not here anymore. She thinks about people who can’t do this. I’m grateful for this hamstring, she says. When it gets bad, she tries talking to her body. Maybe she likes being in pain, or maybe she likes knowing that the pain does not own her. She’s 43 now, and sometimes when she’s running her hamstrings get so tight it feels like her muscles might rip. Karen strained her piriformis, a buttock muscle, when she was younger. She runs along the dry-cracked mud, next to riverbeds and over trees fallen in the path. Tucked away inside the trees, Karen feels protected. She’s been angry with God.Įrwin Park rises rather unexpectedly out of ranchland and rolling prairie where longhorn cattle dot the landscape. She was raised Baptist but can no longer bring herself to enter a church. But it wasn’t until she discovered this wooded trail in Erwin Park in McKinney, Texas, that she felt something close to peace. She liked the feel of her feet pounding the earth the shock and adrenaline needed somewhere to go. Karen took up running in the years after she lost her world. The noise starts low and feral, then rises from the depths, growing sharp and loud enough to echo under the canopy of oaks where she runs each day. She puts her hands to her knees, opens her mouth, and lets the sound that’s been building find release. There are moments on the trail when Karen Sparks stops running. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |