I am stronger than I thought

I began running at the age of 40.  I felt inspired by two things. 1-A reality tv show about weight loss and 2-A friend of mine who is an avid runner.

In my faith, we practice something called “The Word of Wisdom.”  It is a health code that I agree to abide by: no tobacco, no alcohol use, no recreational drug use, plenty of fruits and veggies and grains, limited amounts of meat.  (I have no problem from abstaining from drugs and alcohol. Limiting meat is a problem sometimes.  :/  )  After giving birth to six children in 13 years my body was starting to feel the effects.  Tired all of the time, feeling heavy, low motivation, low-just-about-everything else.  But in watching the tv show—full of AVERAGE people that needed to lose weight, I began to feel like “If they can do it, I can do it.”  After all, they were A LOT heavier than I was.  So, I started to exercise.  30 minutes a day, three days a week.  THAT. WAS. IT.  I knew that I could work hard, but for a limited amount of time.  I gave myself 30 minutes and when that time was complete, I was DONE.  No, “just one more time” from me.

 I enjoyed keeping in touch with my long distance friend who was developing herself into a very talented endurance, long distance runner-- Marathons, baby!! Something clicked in my brain and I started to think, “If she can do that, so can I.”  Now, this is where I need to explain something.  My friend is about 5’4” and probably weighs 120 lbs. (If even) I am over 5’9” and, at the time, weighed over 190 lbs.  Running did not come naturally to me.  But, due to not wanting to pay for a gym membership, I decided to use what was available to me…the road outside my front door.  So I started “running.”  It probably didn’t look much like running then.  My part of the neighborhood looked a bit like a capital A, the bottom parts of the letter are culdesacs.  I lived on the street in the middle of the A.  So, when I crossed the street, I could run around the “block”, if you will, and come right back to my house.  My neighborhood was also hilly, so, in order to get the the “point” of the A, it is uphill slightly.  I would walk the uphills, and run the flat parts.  I would do that 4-6 times during a workout, 1-2 days a week.  (Did I even mention that my footwear at the time was a knock-off brand of “Crocs?”)

I kept up this cycle of following along with exercise videos (that I happily checked out from the library,) and “running,” for several months.  I began to notice changes in my body and changes in my attitude.  I decided that I could run a 5K (that’s 3.1 miles if you are not yet a runner.)  And, when you are not a runner, 3.1 miles seems like A REALLY LONG WAY TO RUN.  I practiced by running for 60 seconds, then walking for 90 seconds for a total of about 25 minutes.  (Remember, I was willing to work out for 30 minutes total.)  All of this training started in January and I quickly thought that I was ready to run my first “real” 5K.  I signed up for one of those races where they throw powdered color on you every 1K. Race day came and I was excited! By the end of the course, I was a very colorful mess and I felt very accomplished that I had covered the full distance.  After that initial 5K, I decided that I wanted to do another one, so I trained a bit harder.  Soon, I noticed that my workouts were lasting 40-50 minutes…and I liked it!

Training for 5K’s got me wondering…”could I do a 10K?”  (6.2 miles)  During the summer of 2013 I kept up with my running, covering about 3 miles each run, 2-3 days a week.  Then I found a program to help me with covering a longer distance.  During the training for the 10K, I started wondering if I could handle a half marathon. (13.1 miles)  It felt satisfying to train for longer distances and for each workout, whether it was a run or a DVD workout.  It felt rewarding to run farther and longer than I ever thought I could.  Each time I exercised I felt satisfied and energized.  I knew that I was doing hard things—physically and mentally—and I liked it!  One day I noticed ab muscles that I didn’t know I had.  Another day I noticed bicep muscles that actually had definition.  And one afternoon, I decided that it really was time for me to tackle the distance of a half marathon.  I loved knowing that I could do hard things. And I realized—I am stronger than I ever thought.  Stronger in my body because muscles were being toned and tightened.  I could run farther and longer and each new “longest ever distance” was amazing to me.  I was stronger in my mind as I realized that most of the difficulties of doing new things came from my own negative thoughts.  “It’s too hard!” … “I can’t run that far or that fast!”... “My body doesn’t look like that.”…  These negative thoughts can keep us from accomplishing amazing things.  Realize that you are stronger than all of that, and adopt this mantra that I picked up; “Don’t think, just go.” That’s it.  Don’t think too much about it…whatever it is.   You’ll talk yourself out of it.  Don’t think.   Just go! I'm stronger than I thought (and so are you). Something I learned on accident, because I exercised on purpose.