Running

Yesterday I was running home from work, and was amazed at the freedom. It took me back down memory lane. There was a time when jogging 1/4 of a miles was almost more than I could do. If I really set my mind to it I could walk for a little while and then run again, but usually once I stopped it was hopeless to start again. Needless to say my running freedom has not always been in existence. So, this is how the story goes...

My Sophomore year of high school I was on top of the world. I was set to start on the JV basketball team. I had good friends, I was athletic, and school was going great. Well on Christmas break my family went skiing. While skiing I took a nasty spill and broke my collar bone. Well, my dreams of starting JV were shattered for at least this year, and my athletic look slowly evaporated into stumpy lard, because of my eating habits. 

To spare you the horrors and depressions I felt of deciding to go on a diet, and my pants not fitting, etc. I will just say I am not the super cute person I am now. I decided this must change, well my stick-to-it-iveness didn't stick long, but luckily sports started and   I started to lose weight and it worked out , but the summer after my Freshman year of college is when the real challenge came. I had to run, by myself, for no other reason than to just run. To add to the pressure my family was running a 5k that July.

 I decided that my high school sporty sisters were not going to beat me at the race, they might be close but they would not beat me. So, I ran three miles almost everyday. Guess what? I did win and that summer is when I developed the ability to run.

Since that pivotal moment, I have done a lot of running. I have almost ran through 4 pairs of shoes and run several 5ks, but more importantly I have developed a real love for running. I enjoy it. When I run and do it regularly I feel peaceful instead of like thudding Pillsbury dough girl. Anyway, I decided to write this because yesterday while running I felt so free and I remembered how good it felt to run. It felt good to remember that even though there were a lot of days I wanted to give up, and a lot more times when it just seemed I couldn't do it, I have. It took hard work, and determination, but I did it. I can run AND enjoy.