Run

Even though I’m not able to run for a while because of my injury, running will be a part of my life again soon. Running will forever be a part of my life as long as I can help it. There are many people out there who are runners. Some run for fun, some to lose weight, some run because they think it’s “good” for them, and then there are those of us who run because we love it.

Growing up, I never played sports and would not have been considered anywhere near “athletic.” I always hated P.E. in school and it was mainly because I was just bad at sports. I am one of the most uncoordinated person you will ever meet and so organized sports and I did not go well together. I stayed active as a child by playing outside and cheerleading for a while. In high school, I started to exercise using Fitness DVD’s and soon I began walking on a treadmill; walking eventually turned into shorts spurts of jogging mixed in with walking. But even then, if you would have told me to go out and run I would have laughed in your face. I laughed at people who enjoyed running and it absolutely baffled me how it could be fun; I saw it as torture. I never, ever, not in a million years, would have dreamed that I would become a runner. While I was healthy, I was not in shape. I could not go up stairs without being out of breath at the top. It was sad but I never bothered to do anything about it at the time.

I did not discover my passion for running until Spring/Summer of 2009. That summer was one of the hardest times of my life and I needed an emotional outlet, badly. I also needed to do something to get my mind off of what was going on in my life, I needed to tackle a challenge. And running was most certainly a challenge. To back up a bit, in the spring,  I decided that I was going to learn to  run and I went outside instead of the treadmill. I used the technique of walking a bit and then running a bit. But even with that, that first day was hard. I thought my heart was going to leap out of my chest and I thought I was going to die. But I did run, just a little bit. But that little bit, that feeling I got when I ran, it was incredible. It’s what kept me coming back for more. And as I did this day after day after day, the walking spurts got shorter and the running spurts got longer.

By the time summer rolled around, I was able to run 2 miles without walking. And this was ahuge accomplishment. Running 1 mile had always been something that seemed like some crazy feat, something that only “athletic” people did, something I most certainly could never do. But here I was, running 2 whole miles. I was proud of myself. And then my world fell apart and one of the few things that I had left, one of the few things that I could control, was running. And I poured my heart and soul into it. It started off then as an emotional outlet and something that I could control and feel accomplished at. Everything else in my life was out of my hands but running… it was all me, it was all I had.

Even though it started as just something I needed at the time, it turned into a passion. My life settled down but my love of running grew and grew. I loved seeing my progress, seeing my mileage increase and my times go down. I challenged myself to beat my own best times. And as I became a runner, my body began changing. I had always been thin and I did not use running as a tool to lose weight but it changed my body in so many ways; I could see muscles that I did not even know I had. The proportions of my body changed and I loved it. I had never felt stronger in my life, ever. I felt like I could accomplish anything. My self- confidence began to grow and spread to every other area of my life and my life changed in ways that I never thought possible.

So you see, running saved me. It’s not only a passion and a love but it was a life-saver and a life-changer for me. It gave me the courage and the self-confidence that I need to go after what I wanted and what made me happy and follow my heart and my dreams. So to some, running may simply be their cardio workout of choice or their weight-loss tool. But to me, and so many others, running is so, so much more.

 

Pre Stress Fracture PR’s and PDR’s

Oct. 10, 2009 – PDR of 5 miles

Oct. 17, 2009 – PDR of 6 miles

Oct. 30, 2009 – 7 mile PDR

Nov. 1, 2009 – 3 mile PR – 25:16

Nov. 6, 2009 – 8 mile PDR

Nov. 11, 2009 – 3 mile PR – 25:14

Nov. 20, 2009 – 8 mile PR – 1:11:26

Dec. 12, 2009 – 10 mile PDR (1:29:53)

 

Post Stress Fracture PDR’s and PR’s

July 20, 2012 – 5 mile PDR (51:08)

Aug. 1, 2012 – 6 mile PDR (1:01:59)