I remember being on a soccer team when I was very young. This was a non-competitive house league team. We wanted to win, of course, but the coaches always imparted on us the lesson of playing our best game, having fun, and showing sportmanship.
I don’t know if you have ever been to a youth soccer match, but it is kind of an undisciplined game. The kids tend to crowd around the ball and have a hard time playing in their assigned positions.
I know that I couldn’t be contained simply being a forward. I always wanted to run back and play defence as well. I wanted to be where the action was.
The coaches noticed that I had energy to spare and could actually manage to keep up with the ball no matter what side of the field it was on. They created a new position just for me. I became the team’s “floater.”
I remember being so proud of that title and made-up position. I ran my heart out every game and in some ways I have never stopped running.
A few years ago, I had the crazy idea to run with a camera. I thought it would be neat to stop every couple of minutes and take a picture. This was I could document my run and share my love of running here on this blog. Thus started the Visual Running Tour series on this blog.
So far, I have posted 18 of those tours. If you look at the last entry though, you might notice something a little different. The photos are sharper, more vibrant, and the composition is more varied and unique than my usual shots. There is a good reason for that. I didn’t take those pictures.
I did run that very route though. I just happened to walk it the next day with my girlfriend. She took the pictures. She loves exploring new trails and taking photographs. We plan on doing a lot of hiking this summer. And after our hikes, I plan on running each and every trail we find.
As such, it is only fitting that she get photography credit here on Silent Cacophony. You have already seen some of her work. We wrote the Snowmaggedon post together, she took pictures of my last run and one other, as well as her photo-essay about Toronto Freedom Fest.
I will continue to post Visual Running Tours and weave a narrative of the route throughout the photos. I may not take the photos on every run any more though. But I will give credit where credit is due.
I so love those photos in the the last post. They look way better than mine. Thank you Dana Kathryn, Silent Cacophony’s newest team member and now its official photographer.
Photography by Dana Kathryn