Why I came back to running

After more than a decade off, why did I come back to running?

My husband started running about a decade ago. And after that once or twice a year, I'd try to take up running again. I'd run/walk two miles. I'd do it again and then I just wouldn't follow up.

For my 20s, I wasn't active. I was in college. I was slaving away at my first job. I was settling into my career. I was learning to cook. I was read and writing. I was figuring out what to do with my free time. And it never occurred to me that I should be a gym rat.

Until I turned 30 and the fitness bug hit. My weight was at an all-time high. I was about to go up another size in clothes. And my sister weighed less than me. Things had to change.

Call it vanity or competitiveness (to be the thin sister), I started walking to get some exercise. I started using our stationary bike and doing crunches. My friend invited me to the gym, and that was it, I was hooked.

I went to the gym every other day. Then four days a week. Then five days a week.

And then I tore a ligament in my ankle. I did MONTHS of physical therapy and my calves were super uneven from one leg atrophying while the other got stronger (exercising with one leg). The doctor suggested I run. I still didn't run.

We would run some in my fitness classes: small laps around the gym. And secretly I loved it. But I wore an I HATE RUNNING sweatshirt to be ironic.

That gym stopped doing fitness classes and I took up barre. It was trendy and challenging.

But I didn't feel like I wasn't getting the cardio I needed, and I could never get in the wait-listed Saturday classes, so I started running on Saturdays.

And I think I ran two miles without walking the first time I ran (thanks cardio from 2 years of going to the gym). And every Saturday, I'd run one more lap. So I was running once a week, up to three miles.

That fall, I started running more (to get in exercise while NOT paying for a gym membership.) I still wasn't REALLY running.

I did my first race last fall. It was a trail race. I felt like I'd been running long enough to try a race. It was a disaster. I hadn't run the miles. I hadn't trained as well as I should have, but didn't really know this. I had to walk in the race. I finished about five minutes slower than I thought I would. But somehow I won my age group and got maybe fifth in women.

But I kept running. And decided to do a 10k in the spring. I'd never done a race that distance before so I found a training plan online and followed that to some extent.

I did the race. I ran much faster than I expected to run. 

I came in third overall and second in women. It was a small race, but that was so amazing. I wondered if I could do even better.

That's when I really started running. I started going to Tuesday track workouts.

I did another 10k the week later and won the women's division. Second place overall.

And that was it. I made a plan to gradually increase my mileage to something more competitive than 15 miles a week. Gradually I started going to group runs and trying to meet other runners. I started buying lots of running shoes, reading running blogs and planning my life around runs and running friends.

So I guess I'm a runner now. And I run because
• I can.
It's a great feeling to be able to run. To be healthy and strong.
And sometimes I drive the route I ran and am amazed that my body can do that.
• I can't stop.
I really don't want to have to build up my endurance after taking time off, so it's easier to keep running.
• I'm okay at it.
I was lucky in that I ran in high school. My body knows what to do. So I have that advantage over other runners.
And it's kind of awesome to be good at something. I'll keep working at it and see if I can get better than okay.
• It's good exercise.
I'm thinner and stronger
• It keeps away the crazy/ endorphins.
I love feeling strong on a run. And it helps keep me happy to have running as an outlet. (I'm much less sane on days I don't run or workout.)