This year I did the fourth 4^th of July run of my life.

In Minnesota I have run the Langford Park 4-Mile in St. Anthony Park, the Firecracker 10K in Excelsior, and Grandpa’s Run for the Walleye 5K in Cross Lake.

Now I can add the Mondovi EMS 5-Mile in Wisconsin to the list of 4^th of July fun runs I have done.

When I say “fun run” I can just hear a chuckle from Landon, one of my former co-workers.

“Huh,” he chuckled, when I invited him several years ago to a fun run that I was helping to organize through the ITC running club that I am involved with. “Fun and run do not go together.”

I totally understand why running is probably not on many people’s list of fun things to do on the 4^th. If you’re not trained for it—and oftentimes even when you are– running can be pretty painful.

This can especially be the case when the weather is nasty, such as on hot, humid mornings like we had this year on the 4^th.

Despite the steamy conditions, however, running the Mondovi EMS 5-Mile was a great way to kick off Independence Day. And a very fitting one as well.

Some of the many things that running on a regular basis helps to give us freedom from are obesity, heart disease, high blood pressure, anxiety, dementia, and depression.

Another thing that participating in fun runs can help to give us freedom from is loneliness, which many reports have found is a significant problem for many people these days.

While it’s certainly possible to participate in a running event and not talk to anyone, my experience has almost always been quite the opposite. At most every running event I have participated in over the years—and there have been hundreds of them—I have almost always made some new acquaintances and/or reconnected with some long-time friends.

While running is not a cure-all for any of the above-mentioned issues, it definitely can be very helpful in giving us freedom from them. That is why I plan to keep running and walking for exercise on a regular basis for as long as I am able to do so.