It really can't be said too often. Even when you are competing with others, you really can still run your own race.
I used to hate running. I joked, as many do, that if you saw me running, you better start running like your life was at stake because it probably was. In more recent years it occurred to me if I ever did have to run to save my life, well, I would probably die. I think the Air Force killed any aspirations I ever had to run anywhere. Fun Run was an oxymoron, and I couldn't believe anyone would actually do it unless their job depended on it. I'll spare you the long story here of how I picked it up in my 40s, but I did. As part of that, I had to find a reason to run and the reason to keep going.
One of the most intimidating things about running is people who are already runners. You see all these marathon runners with what appear to be fancy gear and amazing legs hopping around and stretching fancy stretches, and it doesn't seem as accessible as it should be. Running really should be the thing for everyone, right? The most populist exercise activity in the universe! Most of us have two good legs with a couple of feet at the ends. You don't even have to have shoes, though it is recommended. You can step outside your door and pick up a patch of pavement and start running. It's the simplest, low cost exercise that you can do just about anywhere. There's even a book about how we were literally Born to Run.
I trained for my first 5K. I didn't want to look foolish out there in front of all those intimidating 'runners'. I made my daughters train for it too. As long as they could have ice cream afterward, they would suffer through several laps at the track. Training really wasn't that joyful for any of us. I don't think I had the right mindset. I was trying to meet some lap time that I deemed acceptable to the world so as not to embarrass myself and besmirch my family name. And the girls hated it because they had to do a certain number of laps to earn their ice cream, but they had no otherwise internal drive to run. They didn't enjoy it.
Sounds pretty grim? You probably aren't the least convinced you should try this at home. So how did the great conversion happen?
At the first 5K, I saw people of all shapes and sizes and ages and health levels. I saw people there running or walking or rolling for all kinds of different reasons. There were waves of people with all different lap times. There were people with fancy running gear and without. They were all there doing their own thing sometimes with others, sometimes just near others. Some were in their own little worlds tuning everyone else out. Along the course there were people holding encouraging signs. People would run up from behind and whisper encouragement to other runners who were struggling. This community that I had written off as a bunch of hard bodies who probably scoffed at amateurs was nothing of the sort. It was the most welcoming, rag-tag army I could ever have imagined. My mind changed about running that day.
Of all the people there that day, only a handful were truly 'racing'. Most people were there running their own race against no one but themselves and their own self-established benchmarks. They were trying to prove something to themselves or be a little better than they were on their last race or using this to prepare for a longer race. What ever the reason, they were not even thinking about my race.
After that, I started appreciating running for what it was. I started setting goals for myself and finding ways to make it enjoyable. Since then, I've run several more 5Ks both officially and unofficially, and a year after that first race, a 15K. My next stop is a half marathon, and this from one of the biggest anti-runner on two good legs that the world has ever met!
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