My love/hate relationship with running.

I have always despised running. I never enjoyed it. I could never see what people liked about it, or how they could actually crave the exercise. 

Of course, when I was 273 pounds, running was so much more physically demanding than it is now. But to this day, I still avoid running like the plague. My asthma, the fact that I don’t know how to breathe properly during workouts, and the fact that I was a long time smoker, really make running a difficult and painful task. 

But recently, I’ve been really wanting to challenge myself. It was always “the one thing I wouldn’t do”, but why? Why can’t I make myself do it?

I started the Couch to 5K challenge last month, and only made it two weeks through, only getting up to the ‘walk 5 minutes, run 5 minutes, walk 5 minutes’. And the last time I remember actually clocking myself on a full mile was in the 10th grade, and I clocked in at 14:54, and that was obviously because I walked nearly the whole thing. 

Tonight, I accepted my own challenge. Mapped out a mile through my neighborhood, strapped on my ipod and took off. I didn’t stop. I actually heard the voice in my head when I thought I was going to start walking saying “Don’t do it. You’re strong. You won’t die. You have time to be weak later. Keep running.”
I reached my stairs and looked at my stopwatch….

7min 29sec.

I cannot believe it. I never, ever, ever thought my body could manage a normal mile time. I never thought I could run a full mile.

If I can run one mile without stopping….imagine how many miles I’ll be able to run if I keep going.