Back to Running

Today, I did something great - I ran.

Running has always been something I loved doing. Running was almost always a part of my life - literally and figuratively. Even back in high school when I used to play football, we had to run whenever we trained. I even remember a time when our PE teacher in senior year asked us to run for 15 minutes straight... with no breaks. I was one of the few who made it, and a smoker at that. Hence, the nickname Jogging Jenny was formed. (Thanks to Crissa Honey Small Foot!)

But the only time I really got into it was when I reached the age of 21 when I decided to quit smoking. I needed to have an activity to help my mind focus on anything but the craving. That was the point when my on-again-off-again relationship with running started.

In the beginning, I just trained on the treadmill, thrilled whenever I could increase the time and speed on the machine. But later on, as I progressed, I started to focus more on the distances. Then, I started pushing myself a notch or two higher by training for marathons... the first marathon being a 10KM race with my then running buddy, Franco (5KM would have been too easy, I said... So we pushed for 10KM and made it). That was back in maybe 2006 or 2007...

Running really suits my personality because I've always been the type of person who believed in hard work and perseverance. There is no way anyone can ever finish a long race without training hard first (except if they have alien genes!!). Running also keeps my mind focused and my soul at ease. So many times I've had EUREKA moments from my reflections while running. When I run, I get to know a little bit more about myself and how much I could take, or how far I would go, how committed I could be. Because running is a commitment... To oneself mainly. Then when you start forming your own little running groups, it becomes a commitment to others.

Running is a metaphor to life.

I started slow today. Did an easy 100M interval training of run-walk. I ran with pro-tri-athlete Tricia C who has recently started training again after a 2 year hiatus. She asked if I would want to train with the polo tri team (I would LOVE to!). The goal is to run a full marathon before I hit 30. I have a year and nine months to go, that is more than enough time.