Running symbolizes the dead-end emotional state of both Sky and Holder before they meet, suggesting how far they each need to evolve emotionally. Holder asks Sky what she does for fun after they first meet: “I smile back at him and shrug, ‘I run’” (48). Both Sky and Holder are long-distance runners, a sport in which the athlete is at once part of a team and yet apart from a team. It is an activity that embodies loneliness and suggests lots of motion but very little movement. After all, Sky first spies Holder while he runs the closed loop of the school’s track, and they bond initially as running partners every morning.

Each morning, Sky gets up before dawn and runs three miles alone around the town. She enjoys the time apart. It gives her a chance to clear her head far from the complications of others. It is a habit she began during the years she was homeschooled. Running provides her the chance to escape the tight confines of her narrow life. She acknowledges as much the morning she pushes herself beyond three miles: “This is the point at which I usually love running the most. When every single ounce of my body is poured into propelling me forward” (39).