Two for two. Two days in a row with a structured workout AND good eating. I am feeling great. I am feeling motivated. I started (re-started) running tonight. It’s been over a year since I’ve actually run as part of my “exercise.”
It felt really good to push my body again. I am posting my daily progress on my Facebook Page. By putting it out there, just as I have put this blog out there, I am helping myself to stay accountable.
I was never athletic when I was younger. I was in “Drill Team” as a sophomore in High School. I tried to play basketball when I was about 12 maybe and had no idea what I was doing and got yelled at from the Coach and I was done.
I started running when I was 35. I don’t remember what made me decide to try it, but I remember telling my sisters and brother-in-law I was going to start running. Like it was no big deal. Ha ha. No big deal. Coming from someone who had never run a day in her life. They looked at me like I was going through a mid-life crisis. Which, in reality, I was.
Running would become a way for me to escape from my everyday thoughts. I became obsessed with it. I downloaded a simple app called C25K and started running; every day. The more I ran, the better I began to feel about myself. I had never been in such great shape physically. I had never felt such pride in myself for doing something that no one thought I would or could do. I was doing it, I was a RUNNER.
My brother-in-law was an athlete and he took it upon himself to become my running/race partner. I ran my first 5K in April 2008, on a cold, wintry day, and I did it! I ran the entire thing!! I was hooked, I didn’t run fast by any means, I think my finish time at that race came in right around 45 minutes. That wasn’t the point, at all. The point was I did it. Something I never thought I could do.
After that, we started finding more 5K races in the area and we ran a half a dozen or so of those before we decided to bump it up to a 10K. I’ll never forget my first 10K either, I came in DEAD LAST, behind a woman who had to have been at least 8 months pregnant. Did it bother me? Not one bit. Because I had run that whole damn course and I didn’t stop.
After that, we bumped it up to a Half-Marathon. We ran it out in the Black Hills of South Dakota. It started at the Crazy Horse Monument and ran downhill on the Mikkelson Trail. It was October, my favorite time of year, and in the Hills of South Dakota, the weather was perfect, the scenery was even better.
I didn’t run that entire race, about half way through my IT Band started screaming at me. I did, however, find a woman who was a few years older than myself, also doing the run/walk thing I was attempting. A complete stranger, but in that moment, we were connected by a single goal.
She and I finished the race together. I remember turning the corner and seeing the finish line staring at us and we looked at each other and said, we ARE going to finish this, running. And as we grabbed each other’s hand, we ran through that finish line with our hands held high in the air. WE DID IT!
We were complete strangers, I never even got her name, but we were brought together during a moment of empathy and compassion for each other. We were kindred spirits for 6 miles. It was beautiful.
As I remember back to the feeling of finishing that race, holding my hands in the air with a complete stranger, I know that is something I want to feel again. The connection to others going through something that will change their lives in some way. Experiencing that accomplishment together.
So as I re-start my running journey, I think back and smile, remembering that I did it once and I will do it again. And maybe this time, I’ll be someone’s anchor to help them through the pain to the finish line. Holding our hands up and tears running down our faces. Sharing a bond, if only for a few minutes.
Catalyst Christa-Perfectly Imperfect 