Monotony and I are not friends. I get bored quickly and need variety in almost all aspects of my life. I’m also extremely, and I mean extremely, competitive. Not only am I competitive with others but maybe even more so with myself. While that can be beneficial in a lot of realms, it can also be detrimental in others in a way that pushes me almost too far. Running was always something I had to do when I was younger. Whether that running was in the form of line sprints in Basketball, bases in Softball, or for punishment due to missed serves in Volleyball, it was never by choice. In college I ventured out to run around campus or along Ada Hayden Lake in Ames but it wasn’t a consistent form of exercise for me by any means. I woke up one day {about 2.5 years ago} and decided ‘I want to run.’ I’m not exactly sure where the idea came from, but I wanted to run. I called my sister Cassidy (the fitness guru in the family) and asked her to make up a plan for me. What she came back with I thought was a joke at first. Of course I can run for 12 minutes, duh. Oh how wrong I was… Her plan looked like this: Monday-12 minutes, Wednesday-13, Friday-14. The following week would go Monday-14, Wednesday-15, Friday-16. The sequence would repeat for 2 additional weeks until I got to run 20 minutes straight, or roughly 2+ miles. On paper that looked easy. On the street, it wasn’t so easy but I stuck I was determined to stick to that plan. After that, I set mini goals for myself and signed up for a 5k. After completing that in the under 28 minute goal I set, I was hooked. Fast forward to today and I can proudly say I’ve run numerous 5k-8k-10k races and even have a Half Marathon to my name {should be 2 but #kneeinjury}.
For me, running is the perfect outlet. Its physical benefits for my body are evident in the way my clothes fit and the number on the scale but its mental benefits may be even more important for me now. Running is free, you can do it anywhere, and you don’t have to be any certain size or shape to get out and run. I love the exhilaration of short, fast runs and I soak in the surroundings on my 10-milers. I like that I can push myself one morning to a 7:15 pace and the next enjoy a more leisurely pace. Running is a great workout but I see it as a mind-clearer for me now. It’s an addiction of sorts, but in a positive way. I feel off if I don’t get a run in at least every other day. Running is a time when I can zone out of the daily grind and focus on what lies ahead of me. I use to shy away from referring to myself as a runner. In my mind, runners were women who run marathons in under 3.5 hours, ladies whose average pace is 6:30, and girls who look good running in sports bras & spandex. Those people ARE runners, but so am I. I AM A RUNNER.
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