Why do I run? It started as these things often do. I had a bad breakup.
But not with an actual person. With a job that I had a love/hate relationship with. I learned a ton while I was there. But in order to learn, I lost a little piece of myself every day. It was time to move on. So I did. Unceremoniously. And decided to use this opportunity to find out what I was really made of. I used to be a runner. Before…..life happened. I started smoking…*gasp* and then became a single mom at the ripe old age of 21—all before I could even finish college.
Flash forward a decade or so…. I am still single and still a mom. The Girl is a 14 year old holy terror, god help me. So that’s another good reason to run. I’ve found no one likes a psycho mommy….even sulky youareruiningmylife teenagers.
I started the move towards taking back control of my life when I quit smoking on September 14, 2008. This was a huge step but it took me another 2.5 years to get to the next phase of the plan. I gained about 40 lbs and was constantly stressed out. My diet was terrible and I felt like Schmidt most all of the time. But between working full time and raising a kid alone, it was hard to find the time to take care of myself properly.
Leaving the stressful job was the catalyst for change. In the days that followed, I knew I needed to do something to challenge myself and prove that I could do something that required discipline. So I decided to run my first half marathon on November 27, 2011. I started training in July and had such an amazing time that I knew this was the beginning of a love affair.
Hard to find words that can describe what it felt like to cross that finish line, but I think this quote sums it up pretty well: “You discover that the person you thought you were is no match for the one you really are.”
This is why I run. Why I am constantly pushing myself and why I get up so damn early in the morning.
"If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son" ~by Rudyard Kipling
This is why I run. Why I am constantly pushing myself and why I get up so damn early in the morning.
"If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son" ~by Rudyard Kipling
