Cheaper than Therapy.

Today I am grateful for Running.

I love running.

I'm not particularly fast. I'm sure my form isn't perfect.

But I love running.

True story.

I used to run when I was in high school. In part because I did enjoy it and in part because if I didn't want to DIE when soccer started in the fall I had to do something all summer to keep in shape. So I ran. and then I went to college, met The Marsh and had babies and somewhere in there stopped running. and at the time I didn't realize how much I missed it. Now I realize how much I really needed it.

I started running again last march. Losing the baby weight from my daughter was a long frustrating road for me, but when I finally managed to lose a good chunk of it I decided I wanted to start running again. I'm so glad I did. For so many reasons.

I just feel better. I enjoy having a healthy activity that I do on a regular basis. After a four mile run I like feeling like i just got a great workout. I like pushing myself to run just a little longer. or just a little faster. Chasing my kids around my yard doesn't seem quite so hard anymore either.

Also..

Cheaper than therapy.

Running is a certain kind of therapy. because I spend most days as a stay-at-home mom to two very busy toddlers I enjoy the solitude of an evening run. no one is pulling on my shirt, yelling in my face, demanding a drink, or needs help reaching a toy. It's just me (or a running buddy in the form of my sister or brother). I put in my headphones and just run. Some running days are heavy thinking days. I think about the children, plans The Marsh and I have for the house, the future, schools, careers. I think about eveything, because nothing is interrupting my string of thoughts. you'd be suprised at how often I am incapable of completing a train of thought. Then again maybe if you have toddlers you understand. Some days I don't think about anything at all. I don't want to think about anything. I just want to run. and listen to bon jovi. So thats what I do. it's very theraputic.

Last summer I decided that I wanted to have some sort of goal. Something to help keep me focused. As I've said before, life is busy. I didn't want to find myself making excuses to not run. to not make time for myself. So one night I asked The Marsh is he thought I was crazy to think I could train for a half marathon in 11 weeks. He was fully supportive, letting me know he believed I could do anything I wanted to.

So I did. 11 weeks of scheduled running. 8 weeks of pushing myself harder and harder. 8 weeks of no junk food or soda. 8 weeks of no alcohol. Right before the race my bad knee (curtesy of an old basketball injury) started to bother me more and more. and then I over compensated and ended up with a hip that was so painful I could barely walk up and down the stairs. I thought about not running the race. The Marsh told me to just try and if I needed to quit then i could. I hated that idea. I didn't put all that time and training into this race to NOT finish. So I sucked it up. Allowed myself to be completely ok with whatever time I ended up with as long as I finished.

after 8 weeks of no alcohol the first thing my brother did was

hand me a bottle of wine.

And I did finish. With a better time than I thought I would too. bonus. It was one of the biggest achievments in my life and I'm so grateful that The Marsh was supportive of all the time I took to train. I'm also grateful that my whole family came out to see me run considering the weather was so awful.

yea. I ran 13.1 miles in the freaking pouring rain. that part wasn't so much fun.

I've spent the last few months taking it easy. trying to let my knee and hip heal. running once, sometimes twice a week. as the weather gets warmer I plan to get out there more again. I even hope to run another half marathon this year.

I hope that this new found love for running will stick with me. that over the next several years i'll get even more comfortable with it and improve in speed. My babes always say that when they get bigger they wanna run with mommy too. I hope so. It will be nice to have my babes as running partners someday.

So today I am grateful for running. to be able to run. its seems so simple to me and yet I know there are people out there who can't do it. So I'm going to keep running until I can't anymore either. Which with any luck, won't be anytime soon.

Oh, and running lets me eat cake for breakfast. so thats a nice plus too.

thanks for reading!

Lana