Well, it IS true... (but I must also make it crystal clear: I will own you in a chip and salsa eating contest. Unless you're a professional chip and salsa eater, in which case I will certainly try to own you in a chip an salsa eating contest, but might fail.)
If you had asked me a year ago "Ellen, do you like running?" I would have replied with a throw-my-head-back belly laugh. If you had asked me that question a year ago it would have been an immediate cue that you didn't know me. Because a year ago the answer would have been, as previously mentioned, a throw-my-head-back belly laugh that implied "NNnnnnoooooooo."
But then my awesome long-lost-friend-from-hs-found-again-on-facebook Baylee hosted these Kick-Your-Booty boot camps which I attended because
I ran it! And walked it... and then ran it some more, finally crossing the finish line in 42:09, which was the slowest of all three people in the race named Ellen. But... the funny thing was, I wasn't dead. Which was surprising.
And after that I just kept running. Not consistently, but I've successfully completed two more races - Run for the Polar Bears (4 miles through the KC Zoo!) and The KC GroundHog Run (which takes place in storage caves in North KC - totally underground!).
I've discovered two main things from keeping up with this fitness thing:
1. I feel better when I'm active. I sleep better, I have more energy, and my mood is elevated. (hooray, endorphins!)
and
2. I need goals. If I don't have a race to keep me on the move, I lose all motivation to run. What's worse, I've realized that this applies to my everyday life more than I would like to admit. If I know I don't have guests coming over for the next two months, my dishes pile up and my mail is thrown on the floor. If all I have waiting for me in a day is a regular work day, it is mentally exhausting for me to think about getting out of bed. So this leads me to a new personal development:
Get out of bed, do your dishes, and run a few times. And do it because it's the right thing to do, not because you get a reward at the end of it!
Best blog I've read in a LONG time and makes me happy to hear you talk about running. Although in some ways you and I run for completely different reasons, we also run for a lot of the same ones. I too feel better when I'm running - physically, mentally, emotionally, etc. - and having goals is the key to consistency. I'm always training for my next race - Trolley this weekend, KU Relays next week, a marathon on the 30th - which forces me to prepare. Glad to hear you're enjoying it! Good luck with everything. BTW, I'll take you on in a salsa/tortilla chip eating contest any time you like.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the wonderful compliment! Hope to run into you at a race sometime!
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