“Why I Run” Entries 1 – 5
I am asking what motivates you to run? Is it someone who does it? I still get choked up about this couple. Where do you get your belief that you can finish those 26.2 miles? I asked for readers to send me their essays and we’ll be voting on our favorite until July 11. The winner will receive a new iPod Shuffle, and the runner up will receive my Garmin Forerunner 305 (barely used).
Entry 1 from Dan (@cubicledad)
I run…
- to be healthy for the first time in my adult life.
- for my 2 daughters and for my wife.
- because I have found I love running.
- to inspire change in others.
- to raise funds for the American Heart Association in honor of my daughter, K and for my father.
Entry 2 from Kevin Ferry
Without question it shaped my life (excuse the pun) when I was a teenager I was doing stuff that I look back on now that I wasn’t proud of. My PE teacher was my mentor and suggested I join a running club, winning races I found I was being looked upon in a completely different way, people congratulating me on my success, even in defeat I learned to accept and appreciate my fellow competitors, this built my confidence and equipped me well for the future, and in reality all I was caving was attention.
I met people who came from much more privileged backgrounds who I would never have come across, who guided me in life, built long term friendships I ended up going onto art school and I’m now a Creative Director in a digital agency.
I still run now and still feel free, any stresses are wiped clean, the sport is a lifesaver.
Entry 3 from Robert Leat
I run because It is a sport I am very good at, it helps me stay fit and healthy , it is one of my main hobbies. it has helped me gain many friends. It is my aim to one day run in the olympics. I was inspired by the 2008 olympics to run. running is my life.
Entry 4 from Kelly
7 years of marriage and 2 kids later, I’ve finally acted on the advice that moms MUST carve out a little time for themselves each day. I started running last year and quickly saw the emotional, mental and physical benefits. My 4-day a week runs (I’m training for a marathon) keep me balanced, make me happy and permit me to be a better mom, wife and woman. They are “MY TIME.” And they are a precious time where all responsibilities and pretenses are stripped away.
I am captivated by what I am learning about myself now that I’m running, and it is this journey to a better understanding of myself that keeps me tieing my laces and heading out that door.
Entry 5 from Lisa
I started running to bond with my husband. I wanted something other than our children and our jobs to talk during date night. It has been the best thing for our marriage. I continue to run because I believe it’s good to be happy with your body.
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I get asked this all the time (obviously by people who aren’t addicted to running like me).
I do it because I can. I do it because it is a never-ending challenge that is achievable.
I was sort-of ‘thrown’ into my first race (Army Ten Miler) with no real training other than an occasional 3 or 4 miles. The feeling as I went ‘slowly’ over the finish line was like nothing I had accomplished before.
I have since finished a half-marathon and a few short (8k and 5k) races. I will complete the Marine Corps Full in Oct, and have surpassed the 20 mile marker this past weekend in my training.
I am so ready and excited. In short, it wasn’t expected I’d live when born prematurely, I did. 25 years later I suffered a terrible car accident that left me in a coma with a fractured skull. They weren’t sure if I woke I would be able to even walk or talk. Well, I did.
And from there, I continue to do whatever it is I’m not expected to do. And that is what my first Full means to me. And that is what passing the 20 mile marker – after getting so close over the last few weeks – also meant to me. And for the rest of my life, as far as I am concerned, that is what beating my own personal best time will mean to me, marathon after marathon, one step at a time.
I run because I was told I couldn’t run. I’d never run in school or through college, I always played team sports or martial arts. Torn medial ligaments in my knees stopped all that and finally getting surgery nearly ten years later I was told I should be happy I could walk without pain again. I decided from that moment I needed to take care of myself better and push myself more.
Two years later, after moving jobs, states, putting on some weight and generally not looking after myself better, I decided enough was enough and I wanted to run, just to see if I could. I started running in March 2009. I ran my first half marathon in June 2009 and my first marathon in December 2009. As I crossed the finish line I just started crying. I had done it. I’ve never had an emotional moment quite like that feeling of personal accomplishment. Everyone had warned me not to do it, not to stress my knees or my asthmatic lungs, but you know what, I feel better today than I have since I was a teenager. Both physically and emotionally, because I know I can, rather than just think I can.
To this day it still amazes me how close I came to never being able to “just do it”. I’m not fast, but I don’t care, i’m out there and i’m doing it. So I continue to run, so that I can continue to run. Some days I hate it, some days I love it, most days it winds me down after work. This year I hope to complete my second marathon, maybe even shave a few minutes off my 5.45 time.
I run because I can’t.
I have always avoided Running, in Jr. High when I suffered from Osgood-Schlatters (growth plates grinding against one another causing pain/inflammation in the patellar tendon and avulsion fractures). In 3rd grade I couldn’t breathe when I did the track and field activities and came in last in a relay race, the pitiful looks I got from my teamates and disappointed parents was enough to make me crawl under a rock and never try again. I was always the last kid picked in gym class. My youngest memory of failing in sports was playing soccer at age 5 and not understanding the rules, the coach hated me and would tell my parents “your daughter needs to remember her position and the rules of the game, she is always the last one to catch up”
When I would get frustrated, My parents would remind me I was born 2 months premature with lungs too stiff to breathe on their own and was put on a ventillator, The nurse couldn’t properly aspirate my lung and collapsed it by pushing to hard, I was in a hospital for the first 2 months of my life, I was not expected to make it as I went down to 3 lbs in an incubator, My father expected to plan a funeral for my small body the size of his forearm.
He always proudly talks about how tiny I was and my mom would tell me, your gonna make it. My dad would theorize I had scar tissue I was trying to breathe through and the deviated septum I had could have been another barrier to my respiratory health.
When I started the Kinetix program 4 months ago, my coach encouraged me to make goals, to push my mental creativity. I decided I would make a goal of sprinting 1 mile which I never believed I’de do. My husband has a family full of marathon runners, so I decided to solicit his help, he jogged by my side a few times. One day I asked him to describe what it was like to just run and not sprint, he said “Lyndsey, at some point you don’t even remember that you are running, just sort of floating along, Like a meditation” .. I want that zen feeling I thought, so I strapped up my dog and we ran, rain or shine, stopping at just about every other post for him, it gave me enough time to find my breathe, i realized its about BREATHE CONTROL. So I practiced running about 2 strides in one breath and it worked, in no time at all I made it 1 mile in 20 mins, and now 4 months later I made my first 1.5 miles in 1/2 hour! I feel so happy to have met a goal that I set for myself, I feel like I can acheive anything I set out to do. Its amazing, I have a whole new confidence I didn’t have before.
So for those of you who are just starting or are even contemplating “I can’t do that” just remember to exhale, breathe and take small steps because before you know it, you will have gotten into the best shape of your life.