Perseverance

Good Friday Morning

I felt the urge to just get it out there that whatever your goal is, whatever your starting point. If you stick with it and stay the course you will get there.
Weather that is a weight loss goal, a fitness goal, a career or financial goal. Stick with it and you wont be sorry. With that said let me share my running perseverance and this is no different than anything else. Up until last May I never ran a day in my life. Even when I was "fit" in High School I played team sports and I cycled ( pretty long distance w my dad) but never ran. I can remember leaving the house saying I am GOING to run, and not even making it to the end of the road. As a grown up  I am a studier if I decide I want to do something I read and research like a crazy person before I even start. So last spring when I had a light bulb moment and decided I would be a runner, I quickly learned that running does not come natural to most. There is more to it than making sure you have your tennis shoes on and leaving the house.. LIKE.. did you realize there are different shoes for different people depending on how  your foot hits the ground. Or that you have to train yourself how to breath when you run. Or that certain foods can cause distress when you run even if they don't normally in your everyday life.. and I can go on and on. I quickly understood OHHH I had not thought of any of this stuff the couple times in HS I attempted to make it around the block. And I became certain that there are probably a lot of people that feel like they cant run bc they tried and could not but that they didn't realize all of the above, just like I hadn't. So last June  I ran my first 5K, well it was more like a run/walk there was some running but there was more walking. IT took me about 43 min and I was THRILLED. 3 miles 43 min and I loved every min. I then signed up for my second in Aug and went on a signed up for a 5 miler for OCT which at the time I didn't know what I was thinking but I am glad I did. After that second my time had gone down by about 5 mins and I actually ran the whole thing this time.. averaging just a little over 12 1/2 min a mile. I remember thinking wow how crazy would it be if one day I can run my long distance runs and HOLD a 12 min mile pace the WHOLE time. In Oct when I ran my 5 miler I did so in 55 min flat ( thats a 11 min mile the whole time) Never in my wildest dreams 6 mnths prior if asked if that was possible would I have said yes. I probably would have laughed when asked. Now with 3 half marathons under me and another on the books for fall along with a 33 mile charity run in November I am realize I can train my body to do whatever as long as I stick with it.. and for the record sometimes that is hard. In April I ran a hard race and most of my issues where self induced like the fact I had eaten about half of what I needed to the day before so I didn't have the energy strength going in to the run to run the way I tried which made recovery absolutely awful or that I had only gotten just over an hour of sleep the night before. I felt so discouraged and I DIDNT RUN FOR 2 WEEKS following this event I sulked and did other work out things when I could and I walked a couple times but I felt defeated. When I finally got the nerve to lace up my shoes I then wanted to kick myself bc the defeat and poor self feelings were all CHRISTY made and they all fell away as soon as I was back on track. ( so much of my journey is mental for me)
Last night I took my daughter out to the greenway, we ran ( she rode her bike) a section I had never run before from the car the greenway was UP HILL for 2.5 miles, I am not sure where it leveled off bc 2.5 is where we did our turn around. I kept telling her don't worry you can do it, it will all be down hill once we turn around. When I checked my GPS when I got back to the car the 5 miles we ran I kept a 9 min 51 sec per mile pace.  CRAZINESS!!!
So whatever your goals are stick with it. If you are someone that finds it hard to stayed focus on a goal, find an accountability partner.I have one and she is the one that called me out and forced me back in my running shoes. She said look how far you have come, really you are going to let a bad race, a bad mood and scheduling conflicts undo it all. I think not. Sometimes in life I think we all need someone to call us out when we are having issues and she had let me sulk 2 wks ( she had given me time to work through it on my own) and said she wasn't letting me sulk anymore.
I dont share any of this to say look at what I have done. Not in anyway! But to hopefuly encourage someone that may be struggling with this. Our journeys are all differnt and most have no end date ( I know mine will never be over) we just have to keep at it.

Happy Friday All!