It began in high school, when I joined the track team as a freshman to keep in shape for volleyball. Believe it or not, I was not the star. I liked practice, and I like running... I just didn't really like running fast. So, I didn't. One practice, a bee was chasing me as I was running a 400 and I had to pick up the pace; at the end of the lap, the coach asked 'where did that come from.' I had no response, but I was sure that I was not running the remainder of the season at that pace. I am pretty sure that I was the one that most of the parents (including my own) felt bad for at the meets, as I didn't run any faster in competition. I continued track until junior year, when I was cut from the volleyball team and realized that athletics/competition was not exactly my bag. I focused on nerdy things that I really enjoyed... looking back, I was not super active at that time.
My inactivity continued until about my junior year of college, where I realized that I could graduate college early. I was super excited, really busy, and completely overwhelmed about graduate school decisions... and out of that I started running. I cannot remember what prompted me to start but I just did. I would head to the UT Rec Center and run on the track with my 'off-brand' MP3 player. I could only last for about a mile or so, but I was running and it felt good enough. From there, I began running outdoors in the Toledo parks, which was maybe not the safest thing to do... but it was the most liberating. This continued until graduation.
Upon moving to Milwaukee for grad. school. I found myself with limited time to run and living a wonderful life of beers, bevies, and Jimmy Johns. It was excellent, but I certainly was not running consistently (or even thinking of running). I would run every now and again... still with my off-brand MP3 player. I was starting to run some longer distances (meaning maybe 3 miles??); the lakefront was so lovely that I just wanted to keep going. Somewhere during this time Pat and I signed up for The Reindeer Run, my first 5K... I was certainly not prepared for running in the Minnesota winter, but it was so fun to run it with friends.
Once I graduated from Marquette and moved to Minnesota, I realized the toll that Milwaukee had taken (dare I say that I was unhealthy). So I joined a gym, bought a IPOD shuffle, and started taking it around the lakes. My runs, still slow, were even longer and I began to realize that whenever I was feeling anxious, nervous energy, I had to take a run and I liked it. For the most part, I ran by myself. My IPOD shuffle got rained on during a run and broke, and my parents got me an even bigger one for the holidays. Pat and I would sign up for the occasional 5K and it was good. Eventually, I did a 10K as part of a triathlon and was not impressed with the distance. I thought I would never run a 10K again, as it was long and boring. Pat somehow convinced me to sign up for another last April, which I did train for. I ended up running with Shelly... and had a great time running the race with her. We chatted the whole time and did not want the race to end. I continued to run causally through the year.
This winter ended up being a bit rough so I decided that I was going to attempt a half marathon in order to facilitate mental sanity. Until today, it has not worked. I mean, it has been good to run, but I haven't had 'my legs' and I haven't thought that I am any 'saner.' Today, was 8 mile day, a distance that I have never ran before. I ate well and bought myself a new CD off ITunes to prepare. By mile 6 I had 'my legs,' was listening to an awesome Broken Social Scene song, and was HAPPY. So happy that I was listening to the same song on repeat, running like nobody's business, and intermittently laugh-sobbing. It felt perfect, and was wonderful to know that I could feel so awesome. Thank goodness Mississippi River Blvd. was pretty deserted. It was silly and wonderful... and, yes, I love running.
1 comment:
That's the feeling - yup. It makes me emotional. Great post!
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