Sometimes I think you need to take a few steps back so you can take a giant leap forward.
I started running about a year and a half ago. My first race was a 5K in Flushing Meadows Park in Queens . I ran about 10 minutes of the approximately 52 minutes it took me to cross the finish line. I always loved how I felt after running (if you want to call it that. I have been and still am very slow). I love that feeling of completion, not the mention that high you get after some intense exercise. However, I feel as if I am always fighting to just put on my running gear and just go. Even though my goal forever has been to run an entire 5K without stopping to walk, it just wasn’t motivation enough to get out there and just do it.
I took a month off during the summer. Until my last 5K race on August 23rd, I really hadn’t run or jogged in four weeks. It was a very hot and humid summer in the big apple, and running in those kinds of conditions can make a fit person sick, not to mention someone with approximately 60 pounds left to lose. It really wasn’t fun for me to run this summer, as I my hands would swell and become painful after about 30 minutes running. If I continued, I would soon get a pounding in my head so hard and I would need to stop. Not to mention the severe allergy attacks and the sinus infection that put me on the sidelines and kept me there for the month.
However, I felt a change was coming. I was actually itching to get back out there. Maybe it was that the start of the new school year was right around the corner (not that I am in school or have any children), but I felt like I needed to start fresh in a way. On a whim, I took advantage of my office closing early the Friday of Labor Day weekend and bought a new pair of running shoes. There is nothing that will motivate a woman to do something than if she has new clothes or shoes to do it in.
I had to take the new shoes for a spin. The next morning, I went for a short and easy run/walk, doing no more than 2 miles. I just wanted to get a feel for them and they felt good. However, due to my schedule, I wasn’t able to run again until this past Saturday. It was right before a big storm. It was humid and windy, but I didn’t care. I had to get out there. I WANTED to go out there. I ran for 30 minutes straight without stopping. I had done this before, but not for a long time, so I was thrilled with my run. I wasn’t sore at all the as the day progressed and decided to run again Sunday morning.
I woke up at 6 am that day and started my two hour pre-run preparation (it is complicated and will get into it another time). I was excited to run on Sunday since it was significantly cooler than in the days and weeks before. As I stepped outside, it somehow felt different. Maybe it was the change in the weather or maybe it was just me.
I started with my usual 5-10 minute warm up of walking. As I started off on my run, I started off slow, even slower than usual. I didn’t want to burn out too quickly as I often do. I stayed on even terrain and even down hills for the first several minutes just to get going. It felt so good the have the wind brush against my skin. I ran down one hill so I could run up it after. In the past, I would stop to walk part of the way up the hill. On this particular day, I did not stop once.
Then I found a different hill a few blocks away. I ran down that one just to turn around and run back up. I just kept thinking, “Just get to the top. It’s not that far. You’re almost there.” At one point, I wanted to check to see how long I was running, but that would have meant stopping (I keep my cell phone in a deep pocket in the side of my skirt and I would need to stop running to dig it out), but I kept going.
During that second hill, I thought that if I could run for 45 minutes, I would be thrilled. Knowing my usual pace, 45 minutes would be at least a 5K. So I kept going. I found one more short but steep hill. I was really winded running up that hill and was feeling like I was getting tired. I made it to the top of the hill and, as a reward, ran back down.
Feeling tired, winded and sweaty, I started walking to cook down and allow my legs a few minutes to relax. I reached inside my skirt pocket to get my phone and see how long I ran for and saw that I ran for 50 minutes!! I was thrilled that I met the mid-run goal I set for myself. As I walked home, the realization of what I had accomplished hit me. Here I was walking home and alternating crying and laughing. People must have thought I was crazy but I didn’t care.
I was curious to see how far I did run. I mapped it out, and saw the mileage. 3.7 miles!!! I know people who had run 5Ks in 8 weeks, 10 weeks, 12 weeks, even 4 months. It has taken me over a year to get to this point. It wasn’t an official race. There was no one cheering for me and there was no finish line. I had no bib number. But I did it. I accomplished the one goal that has alluded me for so long.
Looking back now, I don’t think I would have run a 5K without taking the month off from running. It made me miss it. It made me want to do it again. Sometimes we become so concerned with the routine that we forget why we wanted to do it. I was not enjoying running, so I just stopped. It took not doing it to realize that I really did in fact want to run.
And now on to the next goal…
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