Usually by this time on a Sunday, I already have my blog post wrapped up and published. It's been a week filled with tension across the world in the midst of the protests and riots stemming from the murder of #GeorgeFloyd. For as much as I hold running close to me as a way to relax my thoughts and often times to distract me from the waves of thoughts that run through my head; I realized that I will not use running to bury my head in the sand. It's appropriate to acknowledge this from the outset of my blog post for the week before I launch into the actual text of my topic.
Today wraps up Week 5 of my #ChicagoMarathon training plan and it was a low mileage and moderate intensity week. I must admit, now that #BostonMarathon has announced the cancellation of their 2020 event, I feel as though I am training while waiting for the hammer to drop. I continue to train as though the event will take place as scheduled, but not with the same level of optimism I maintained about one month ago.
The Covid 19 restrictions for the country has been relaxed and it feels as though I have been given the gift of resuming training sessions with my group on Tuesday morning #TeamRunNaturally. One of the sayings that I share often with my group is how running is 90% mental. As part of the content that I share across the group's social media platforms, I raised two questions to engage them on the topic of what running means to them:
What have you learned about yourselves as runners?
What has running taught you?
I enjoyed the diverse responses and addressed the fact that a handful of my members do not consider themselves to be "runners". (That is probably another topic which can stand on its own). I began to consider my personal response to the questions above and decided that there is no better time to share my list of the ten things that running has taught me.
Here we go.....
Running teaches me not to rest in my comfort zone because there is no progress there. As runners we always want to get better.
Running teaches me that you can accomplish what you set out to do when you plan and train.
Running reminds me that there is no age barrier. It does not matter when you start. What matters is that you start.
Running teaches me that even in the bad runs, there are lessons to be learned. Just like life.
Running teaches me to take chances. It has led me to travel to that city that I may never have visited otherwise. It has led me to talk to that stranger in my starting corral who turns out to be a wonderful human being.
As wonderful as running has been for me, it has taught me that there is an ugly side. Not everyone embraces your progress.
Running is a paradox. It is a solo sport that maintains such a strong sense of community. Run a race and you will see how complete strangers encourage you, push you and cross that line with you. That is community.
Running has taught me to listen to my body. I learned this the hard way, but it is a lesson learned.
Running has taught me that I can do things that I never thought were possible.
From the day I fell in love with running, I knew that I would never look back or regress. I was right.
