5 Reasons Why You Should Take Up Running
/
I finished my last half marathon on Saturday at 2:13. I am still on the quest to break the two hour mark. I know that if I actually trained for a race, I would probably be a lot faster. I still show up at the starting line in the early hours of the morning with all the other runners and beat my body into submission.
Why do I run?
I remember one of the first exercises running years and years ago. Let us flash back to about 1988. I was in ninth grade and on the basketball team. We didn't win a single game that season, but I do remember running. Lots and lots of running and the reason why was because we NEVER won a game. I loved running. Back then I was the fastest on the team. I was small. Fast. Couldn't shoot a basket to save my life but I could almost fly.
I remember running with my dad and sprinting. Freedom.
I did a little jaunt in college with the cross country team. I was the slowest.
What ended up happening is that running became something more than I ever thought, and when it was almost taken from my life due to chronic back pain (degenerative disc disease and facet arthropathy with spondylosis). During the time of the most pain, I could not run. During that time, I was quite depressed about it.
So you can imagine, the joy I feel when I run today. Radio frequency lesioning (RFL) found me, and I'm back to running again. It's different though. Now when I run, there is an elation that I did not experience before. There was a moment Saturday when I was running through a shaded area. The trees were shading the road very heavily and there were tiny flowers floating through the air landing in front of me. Very ethereal. I'm just saying the appreciating is way above what it could ever have been otherwise.
1. I run because I can.
2. I run because I want my heart and lungs to be stronger.
3. I run because I desperately need ME time. I can't pull out my iPhone and fill every void moment with texting or tweeting. It's a time that I completely check out.
4. I run because I do some of my best thinking while running. Have a problem at work? I tend to work through them mentally.
5. I run because the runner's high exists, and it is truly better than any drug.
I have had runs that absolutely sucked. Just keep trying. Just put one foot in front of the other.
It will change your life!