Running

I’ve spent a lot of time blogging about running in the past. There’s a very good reason for this that goes a lot deeper than might be expected. Over the past few years, I’ve been struggling with something that has caused me to evaluate what’s important in my life. I’ve spent a lot of time agonizing over this problem and I’m ashamed to say I haven’t always handled the stress well. In fact, I’m sure I was unbearable to be around. However, about two years ago, my sweet mother-in-law handed me a training schedule for the Salt Lake half marathon. I dived head first into the schedule and found that I was thinking more and more about running and concentrating less on my problem. My problem never went away, of course, but I was able to move it to the back of my mind while I thought about minutes per mile, lactic acid and Asics shoes. It made me a happier and more relaxed person, something I needed in order to cope with all I had been dealing with and I didn’t realize how much running had done to distract me until I got shin splints and had to stop running. I had been training pretty hard to increase my speed in order to accomplish a running goal I had set for myself and all of a sudden, I was sidelined, unable to run even a mile. All at once, I couldn’t do anything to accomplish my running goals, I had more time than ever to sit and think, and not only did my problem come crashing down around me again, it seemed to intensify because my distraction had now been added to the problem. The 6 months I was unable to run due to shin splints and then a knee problem were torturous to my mental well-being. I was forced to look my problem straight on and I’ve come to terms a bit with it, though I’m still not happy about it. And now I am slowly getting back to running and I’ve regained my equilibrium and I have some peace back in my life. And I was able to run my first big race since healing (I did run a half marathon while I was working through my knee problem, which probably wasn’t the best idea because it set me back a bit). I ran Ragnar Las Vegas with Chris, my sister, some friends and some people I’d never met but who quickly became friends. It was a relief to be back and I feel more equipped to handle things that come my way.