My Love Affair with Running

If any of you have known me for a long time, I was not the fitness and healthy person I am now.  I'm not to an endpoint, but I'm farther from my start.  When I was younger, my only reason to run was if someone was chasing me with a deadly implement (not that anyone ever has, but that's what I said about running, "I'll only run when someone with a knife is coming after me, a gun and I'm already screwed...").  What changed you ask?  I tried something new :-)

At the beginning of my health journey, a bunch of women I was acquainted with decided to stop being "squishy" as we called it and decided to all register for a 5K race together.  A local, no frills, nothing special race but it was a goal.  Someone then informed me of the C25K plan, which really helped give me a guide to easing into the process, I can do anything for 30 seconds, and it grew from there.  After I ran my first 5K, personal stuff happened and I drifted away from a lot of things for many reasons.  But once the personal stuff was out of the way, I decided to get back into it, so I signed up for a new 5K this past March (the Colon Cancer Coalition 5K "Get your Rear in Gear" for my momma).  My friend Julius ran the race with me because he's awesome like that.  He then challenged me to run the 10K over the Ben Franklin Bridge here in Camden in November, so I said yes.

Over the course of my journey of running I have learned to love it, of course it's not always the perfect relationship, but the sneakers are always there for me when I'm ready to give them my time.  I never thought I would be a "runner" and I'm not a very fast runner but I'm still a runner.  It is a very active meditation.  When you're running it is you and the pavement (or the treadmill) and sometimes my dogs.  The outside world melts away as you focus on the rhythmic beat of your feet and the sound of the music in your ears.  It's time for things to "compost" as I call it.  I'm focused on the running that the other worries I have are allowed to work themselves out in my sub-conscience, I'm not agonizing over a decision, I'm not thinking out all the different possibilities, by the time I get done running, if I've had anything to worry about I have usually come up with a solution.  It is because of this that running has become part of my life.

And today I proved that by completing my longest single run yet (except for an 8 mile mostly walk with Julius last year) at 4 miles.  I didn't run the whole thing, but I ran and I made it through 4 miles on the treadmill (no outside running in this heat for me friends...).  Running and yoga are very similar to me.  It is your own practice and you just can't let yourself quit.  But in the end, being able to say I did it, is better to me than wondering what if I didn't??