I will admit it, I love good food. I also love running. Running aids my obsession with food and vice versa. I think of food in many of the same ways I think of running: 1) fun, 2) essential, 3) elemental, and 4) delicious. It is no irony that this spells FEED.

FUN because that is what eating and running are to me. The endless combinations, the guilt-free pleasure I take in it, and the friends and family I share great food and running with. ESSENTIAL in that I can see the big picture-which reveals that food is essential fuel for my mind and body, much like running is essential medication for the two. ELEMENTAL because what is more primitive, basic, or simple as the two? The simple ability to create a dazzling, mouth-watering dish out of basic ingredients or the primitive urge to run-not always away from something but also to smooth the troubled waters we often find in our minds.  Finally, DELICIOUS, as in the roasted red pepper soup and elk steak, avocado and spinach salad I had for dinner. And delicious in the sense of calm and self-confidence that is inevitably found on the run-with the rhythm of your every breath and the response of your muscles, unconsciously answering the request to move in sync. For me, running spells feed. It feeds my mind. It feeds my soul. It feeds my body.

What does running spell for you?

- Andrija Barker