I read a lot about running and recently have been reading about recovering addicts. I also read about people who find running and it changes their lives. The best is when a recovering addict finds running. I think those stories are great. I sometime wish that I had similar stories of finding sport. Mine is just slightly different...
I started running at a very early age. I was probably only seven or eight years old. I ran on the local track team my dad helped coach. I got my start as a sprinter because that's what my older brother did. I was mediocre. After two or so seasons, I got my chance to run the mile, and that's when I found running...
After that first mile...
That was it...
I was hooked and never raced less than the 800m again.
That was it...
I was hooked and never raced less than the 800m again.
That single mile would change my life in so many ways that I didn't even know of at the time.
I loved every minute of running at that age. I would get lost in the tree tops from the high. I would get lost for hours running through the North Jersey burbs for "training". I had no structure, no training plan, no tapering or periodization, I could just run. It was simple then...
I've run ever since. I have run almost my entire adult life. Some years I might have run just a couple hundred miles the entire year, and others over 2,000 miles. On more than a dozen of those years, I even added in swimming and biking when I was a triathlete... But I've always had running.
I'm not a fair weather runner. Actually pretty far from it. I prefer the elements, the tougher the better. Blizzard conditions, -10 below zero, over a hundred degrees, bring it on...I can remember my run in the rain on my wedding day just as well as I remember my run on the day of my friends passing. I can easily recall running to the finish with my girls after a week long stage race. It's not always easy for me though. I struggle with motivation, fitness, time, burnout and over-training... When I do overcome those obstacles, the act of running is still simple. Fresh air, heart pumping, lungs burning... running.
I have used running to shake off a hangover. I have used running as transportation. I have used running to get lost and explore. I have used running to help keep me grounded. It's been there for me through thick and thin. Running has always been a part of me, that thing I can just do. That thing I can always rely on to be there to clear my head of all other thoughts and just move. Running gives me that mental reset. Running gives me that endorphin rush, that high that I've chased for so many years. I work through my life's problems while running. I find answers to life's riddles that puzzle me otherwise.
I have used running to shake off a hangover. I have used running as transportation. I have used running to get lost and explore. I have used running to help keep me grounded. It's been there for me through thick and thin. Running has always been a part of me, that thing I can just do. That thing I can always rely on to be there to clear my head of all other thoughts and just move. Running gives me that mental reset. Running gives me that endorphin rush, that high that I've chased for so many years. I work through my life's problems while running. I find answers to life's riddles that puzzle me otherwise.Life for me without running is hard to imagine. Even though I have to work harder now to achieve my goals, eat right, structure my season, running is still just as enjoyable as it was back on that track so many years ago... I am thankful that I've had running for so many years of my life and have used it at times when I've needed it most.
So... I will set my alarm...set out my running clothes tonight... and chase away those negative thoughts...the self doubt... and attack my run tomorrow.