7 years running
Today marks 7 years, I say running, but it didn’t start that way at all. It was today in 2012 I started out by walking around my neighborhood. This also means, come October it will be 8 years since I officially quit smoking, and 8 years just passed since an asthma attack landed me in the hospital for 3 days.
It’s so strange, because it feels like I was in high school just yesterday, but the asthma attack, quitting smoking, and starting to run feels like it was in another lifetime. Is it nostalgia? I don’t think so, while the asthma attack was unpleasant, and I hated being in the hospital, and quitting was difficult, none of it was much more uncomfortable than being in high school was for me. I hated it there. So it’s not like I’m yearning for the “good old days” and that makes me feel like they weren’t that long ago, whereas more unpleasant things are so distant, even though they are physically much closer.
More than that, running has given me so much. Apart from the friends in my great running club, and people I’ve met just overcoming my shyness and anxiety during races. It’s given me confidence, direction, it’s helped me discipline my mind, even though I’m still pretty much a mess.
The thing is, I still feel like “ugh running” when I’m out there, but I still wouldn’t trade the experience for any other. And while I’m not out here to break records and win trophies and such, I do like it when I push myself to my particular limit, and exceed said limit. When I put in a super fast mile (relative to me) or a super fast (again relative to me) 5k, 10k, 10 miles, whatever, it feels good. It feels as good if not better than any other sporting/physical accomplishment I’ve ever managed. That includes winning championships/league titles in different sports.
Anyway, I’ve also been hitting some core training, trying out the “One Punch Man workout”. It’s simple enough, but I’ve certainly had to work at it. I’m about 100 days in of 100 pushups, 100 situps, and 100 squats every day, and there are some differences. Apart from physical appearance of more muscle definition (which I don’t care about), I feel stronger. I legitimately feel more stable, more powerful, more capable as far as those muscles go. Some things are easier to do.
It hasn’t coincided with faster running times, as the heat, even in the morning, has slowed me down, along with a nagging injury in my left hamstring, so hopefully that sorts itself soon enough and I adjust to the heat.
My only other issue right now is my shoes are running to the end of their useful running life and I need to put together the money for a new pair. It’s hard when your job only really runs 9 months out of the year, and you ended up with about a month off in the middle of it due to circumstances out of your control. So now it’s a mad scramble to try and find income for the summer. We shall see what happens.
At this point, I need to get ready to go do some things, so I will cut this one short. I just wanted to check in and mark this day with something. It seems like something to take note of. It’s an important day for me. It really is the day that started me on this path I’m on now, today is the day where I didn’t just want to change my life because of a really horrible thing that happened, today is really the day I made that change begin to manifest into reality.
Have fun, keep running and remember; if Gil can run then so can you!
Posted in Uncategorized by Gil with no comments yet.
Leave a Reply