I run, therefore I blog about it

A funny thing happened while training for the LA Marathon, I fell in love with running. Any logical person would probably think they if one is running their 4th marathon and have also run 4 half marathons then they already loved running, but my relationship with running is more complicated than that.

When I first started long distance running I was living in Indiana and was the ripe age of 22. A friend of mine made a flippant comment once about running a half marathon and I said I wanted to do it too, so I trained. She never started training though so I ran it by myself and although I didn't so much feel the complete joy of running, I was happy I stuck with it and I followed through.

Most of the races I signed up, I signed up for were for the challenge. Sometimes I felt like I needed something positive to work towards to boost my self esteem or to feel like I can accomplish something. When I was living in Austin I was really down about school not working out and I didn't know what I wanted to do and I felt like a loser with nothing going for me. Training for a marathon pulled me out of that funk. It was a distraction and with each mile I felt a little better about myself as a person.

Almost every time after I would run a race though, towards the end of the training I would grow tired of it. Tired of all of the miles, tired of my life being focused on that and not being able to do other social things because of it or if I did do social things, paying for it in my run the next day. Once I ran the race I gladly stopped running for a period of time and did other forms of exercise.

I feel differently this time though. The marathon is 11 days away and I have no feelings of wanting it to be over or of being over running. My past few runs have felt great and I am finally feeling that zen when I run where it just feels good to pound the pavement. The runs are not difficult or burdensome and I am healthier than I have ever been before a race. I virtually had no issues this training - no pain in my hips or knees, no lack of energy, no anemia, minimal stomach issues - it has been fantastic!

I went into this training without any time goals or expectations. It is Mike's first so I wanted to just go at his pace so I put no pressure on myself to run a particular pace. If we run it in 6 hours it won't matter, which frees me up to just enjoy running. Having a training partner has also made it more enjoyable. We encourage and support each other and know what the other person is going through so I don't feel like I am going at it alone. It is still a challenge though, which I love. It has also opened my mind to other possibilities, an ultra perhaps? I have been thinking about that for a long time and maybe I have broken through the mental barrier to do it because running doesn't feel like a burden but a joy.