Running for a Limitless Life

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I call it freedom, some call it torture! Running was never my cup of tea growing up, it just didn't seem natural as my head would pound every time my feet hit the ground. My whole body would itch and after ten minutes I always called it quits. It was torture, and I always wondered why someone would ever choose to run. "Your just not made to run," I would reassure myself and chalk it up as an attempted failure.

Fast forward 10 years, when I decided to give it another shot! Some of my friends are definitely natural runners, and they seem to float along like a gazelle running through a field! I envy how effortless they make it look. I used to have dreams this was me, then I would wake and realize it wasn't, so disappointing!

My husband started running again and training for an ultra marathon and encouraged me to try to start running with him. I himmed and hawed, for months. I would try to mentally tell myself that I could do it and then end up walking, frustrated and defeated. The pressure from him or anyone else to keep a certain pace was too much, so I withdrew from running again. Embarrassed that I was running as slow as a fast walker didn't sit well with my competitive nature.

My husband had a subscription to Runner's World and I came across an issue one day at the house, so I began reading about running, it began to inspire me. It also motivated and educated me on how to actually train to accomplish your running goals. It was a gradual love-hate relationship in that first year, but I went from only being able to run for five minutes to thirty minutes.  It actually became mentally and physically addicting to see if I could go a little bit farther, a little bit faster. I had never felt stronger in my life. Running became my time to reflect, pray, test myself, empty my thoughts at the end of a hard day. What I didn't realize is this was just the beginning to  living a limitless life that I hadn't experienced before.

My thoughts became more positive the more I ran. Thoughts about life, about me, about how I could achieve goals I had set for myself, one run at a time. My friends that were runners encouraged me to do longer mileage, to push myself a bit harder each time. The races I entered for fun, began to motivate me to train more efficient and kept me on track to accomplish bigger running goals. Now, don't get me wrong I am not winning any races, except against myself and breaking my own mental limitations. Its funny because people would ask me if I ran and I would say well, I slog! Slogging is my term I coined for myself in the beginning. I would say, "well, I am pretty slow, I am a slow-jogger, not a runner!"  And it just turned into slogging! I am now confident and proud to say, I am a runner! I slog through the winter months, but then turn into a runner come spring and summer! Its exhilirating!

To date I have had the opportunity to run quite a few short races and two half marathons. Never in a million years did I think I could run a 5K, a 10K and a 1/2 marathon. We really do set our own limitations and sometimes we let others set them for us. Running for me has set me free to live a limitless life! With every run, I shed mental limitations that I hadn't even realized had crept into my mind over the years! Looking forward to some spring running and running the Rock n' Roll Seattle 1/2 in June!

What is your limitless life motivation? Comment below.