Those of you who know me know that I am a runner. Those of you that don’t well now know that I run and by running I mean full on scale, race endorsing, three miler and more runner. Yes three miles. For some reason people seem to explode when I tell them that I do this form of exercise. Maybe it’s the idea that you are literally putting yourself out there and making yourself go through pain just to do the exercise. Maybe its that you have to do this multiple times a week just to keep up the workout and not restart every time you step outside your door. Maybe its because I am a female who Is running and throwing my whole body in the motion and yea I don’t look good doing it. Yes it hurts sometimes. Yes I have those moments where I don’t want to run.
The thing about doing anything new is that its not supped to be easy. Running is no different. If anything it is actually one of the harder sports out there because most of the time it requires you to be by yourself. Being alone means you have to mentally and physically keep yourself going. Control. Control is key in this sport that I participate in.
Control over yourself, your thoughts, your state and sometimes the idea of moving your body long distances while sweating and trying to breathe sounds terrible and way to hard for most. For me it was a challenge just to get this far and keep up with it. Getting this far always surprises me. I never saw myself as that person who could run a 5k (that’s three miles) in 26 minutes. I never saw myself like I see those women in magazines. You know the ones. The ones who are smiling, hair up and flying in the wind, full stride and light sweat overtaking the body. I.NEVER.Saw.that.Happening. Not a single day in my life did I imagine myself in that picture instead of that model or that athlete.
It’s a struggle everyday to tell yourself if your going to do that run or not. Even now I sit here wondering if I can actually do alright in this race but you know what always makes me move forward and do the run? The fact that I know I can do it and the fact that I would feel terrible If I stepped away now. I see myself being athletic, I love the high I get once the run is halfway though, I love the sweat since it shows off how hard I was working, I love that I am moving my body on my own accord to do something others find awful, I love that this now me.
I think that we have this idea that something is too hard and we back away once we try it once but the thing about life is that if doing something new was always easy then every one would do it. Every one doing the same thing, and being ABLE to do the same things sounds great in theory, until you really put it out there in detail. Why does anybody want anything to be easy? We would all be alike. We would all think the same. We would all be so boring to one another and be trying to come up with a "new" and creative way to do something but, even if we did everybody would already be able to do that.
Don’t ever limit yourself just because you think your size is too big, or you think it hurts too much, or that one time you tried you did terribly and it was embarrassing. Never let yourself stop doing something that is healthy for your body and for you. I run because I enjoy it. I run because it makes me healthy. I run because it always shows me that I can keep getting faster if I stick with it. I run because putting that distance between me and everybody else is exactly how I want it to be. I want to be able to run as far as I do and tell others that its not so bad once you get going. I want to be that example for those all ages, sizes, colors.
Success isn't always about business. Sometimes success is feeling good about what you do for yourself.
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