Monday, August 13, 2012

Diary of a Nonrunner that signed up for a marathon




 This is not meI’m writing about, it’s about this girl that decided to grab her shoes and turnthem into running shoes, apparently, for no good reason.  In another place, that is not the one Ilive in, this girl woke up one morning and said to herself, “I think it’s timeto make a life changing thing, today, I will run”.

She was dreading it all day, because she hates running. Shehates that everything, yes, everything bounces when she runs, the feeling ofnot being able to breathe and that pain in her side after a sprint. She hatesthat her hair gets sweaty and her feet start throbbing, she hates the fact thatafter running for 15 minutes, she can barely go down a set of stairs, let alonewear heels the next day. Nonetheless, off she went!



As she stepped onto the track, the voices in her headstarted singing, “ How much pain has cracked your soul?” Every step that I take is another mistake…”, “Itdoesn’t even matter how hard you try” “So keep pace, how slow can yougo”. “Thanks Muse and Linkin Park, that is EXACTLY, the motivation I needed formy first run”, she mumbled, she turned the volume up and let, the anger,the frustration and even the annoyance of the lack of self-trust, take over,and she ran.

I wish I could tell you that with every step she took sherealized she was born to do this forever, to run around the world and see thesunset from every cardinal point (yes, Forrest Gump reference), unfortunately,with every jog her fears were confirmed. Yes, the wind in her face feltamazing, there is a certain freedom when you run, but when her mindcame back to reality, she felt the pain in her left knee( she has a bad kneewhich she is always whining about), her neck felt tense and with it herstrength wanted to fade.

“The good Lord gave you a body that can stand most anything. It's your mind youhave to convince.” Her new motto, and for this reason, she didn’t stop. Everytime the pain would hit one of her bones, she went back to it, and keptrunning. She also thought her soul has gone through a lot of things she hated,that hurt, and she HAD to go through them, but in the end, she came outstronger, braver, wiser, so maybe if she could just endure and complete thisrun on the first day, it was just the start of a great race, where hopefullyshe will find her inner survivor, the fighter she knows lives inside. She kept running, with all her heartand her soul, even though she felt stupid and weak, she kept running, and she'll keep running, toignite a fire, from the inside out, that she’s afraid she has lost.

1 comment:

  1. Scary, you just described me yesterday morning, and as i sit here drinking my tea thinking about can I run again today I'm reading your blog. Last year I signed up to run the marathon in New York but haven't run consistently for a long time but with three months to go its now or never . . . your words have made the difference this morning . .. shoes and shades on and off I go . . . . . Thx l-a

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