Two Years Later: A Running Update

Two years ago I posted about training for a 10k. Two weeks ago, I finally ran one.

This is not exactly the training plan I had anticipated, so it feels good to have finally done it. Another thing that (surprisingly) feels good is the running itself. While I do still have runs when (as I described in that initial post) every step is a battle and I believe that going for 10 more seconds might kill me, I also have runs (like today's, for example) that feel great, enjoyable even. Before I liked having just run; now I'm learning to like running.

Here are a couple other things I've learned in my "0 to 10k in 2 years" journey:

1. Slow and steady wins (or at least finishes) the race.
I've never exactly been a speedy runner, but my personality, if not my legs, tends towards the hare more than the tortoise. For a long time, there was something in me that kept pushing too hard, that felt like I was somehow cheating if I wasn't going as fast as I could. My lungs did not appreciate this approach and often felt like they were on the verge of liquefying inside my ribcage. When I finally let myself slow down, and I mean, slow way down, I found my lungs to be much more cooperative, and I think my being able to actually enjoy running now is due in no small part to this fact. The ability to process oxygen will do that, I guess.

2. I will do it . . . eventually.
I remember saying this to my mother a lot when she would nag me as a child, for example, about cleaning my room. It was a true statement back then -- I might put cleaning my room off for a seeming eternity but I would eventually do it -- and it is a true statement now. I did eventually run the 10k I set out to. There were a fair number of false starts (not to mention full stops) along the way, and I would be lying if I said that the stop-and-go didn't frustrate me at times. But in life, unlike in racing, too many false starts don't disqualify you, and things worth doing, I think, are rarely accomplished on the first try.

As I'm typing, I don't mean these thoughts to be metaphors for so many other things in my life. Somehow I think they still are . . proof, I suppose, that running is still good for my soul.

Feel free to check back in a couple more years (or maybe just a couple months this time?) for an update on the half-marathon I'm now training for.