12. Dec 12: Unexpected Passion: What new hobby or interest piqued your passion this year? Or did you think about an old passion in a new way?
Well this is easy! Though I hate to be so repetitive.
As much as I'm struggling now, the start of this year was such a huge burst of energy and interest in running. I'd never been able to run for longer than a couple of minutes. I still run about as slow as I did before.... but running for an hour? Two hours? Beyond my wildest dreams.
It's always seemed like something only thin people did. Or men. All the runners I knew were either always always thin, or newly thin or male. I didn't know anyone that looked like me that still ran. They walked. Or hiked. Or swam. Or lifted. Or did the elliptical. Or didn't do anything at all. I love all those things and I did those too... but I wanted to be the not-thin-girl who also ran. Maybe it was from seeing my Dad run all those times when I was a kid, riding my bike next to him. Maybe it's my envy of all my friends I've seen in races or doing plyometrics on the high school theater stage as I watched from the wings. Maybe it's wanting to find some way to be active after letting ballet and basketball slip through my fingers. Maybe it's seeing how dedicated Ed is to getting out every morning.
I don't need to be fast or thin. I just have to get out there and run and I feel accomplished. It's a strange thing. I'm usually so overly competitive. I still struggle with trying to keep up with the crowd, whether it's a bunch of other runners or a bunch of little girls bowling next to me. But somewhere after 10 minutes in, I let it go and can simply be. Slow poke me, moving along.
I would say I'm idealizing it, but I'm not. I look back at those posts where I wrote about the races... I think back on the races... the training... and I feel very clearheaded about how amazing it is that I did that.
And to end it all on a light note, I re-found this commercial and remembered how much I loved it when I was training:
Loved it Carly. Running is a different and unusual experience that kind of changes the way you think about things. I remember that as I traveled I'd use running as my way of "meeting" a new City.
ReplyDeleteLove to read your stuff Carly