Start running and keep on running

Is it okay if I think that I will never do this without outside help (in the form of staying on a team or running with another person)? I’d like to be able to run on my own all the time because it would make things simpler. But that hasn’t happened so far. What do I do for the rest of my life?

When running was a part of a daily routine, I made improvements so much more quickly and with much less halfheartedness. Now every workout is a concentrated effort, and most of all, it’s not fun, but it used to be. I’ve realized that one of the important keys to a pleasant mood for me is that I have activities that I really love doing and that I have a great time pursuing. For right now, it’s singing with the choir. Hopefully, I can learn to cantor, that’s my short-term dream. I wish for the feeling when I was happy running with my best friends on the team, though. I don’t know how I will be happy running again. A lot of the pull came from the company I was always with, and running by myself, while not a complete disappointment, still doesn’t entirely cut it.

Here is the college admissions essay that I recently came across again, after writing it over two years ago. I see mistakes that I can correct now, but I will leave it as I found it. I’d been advised not to write about the same sports experiences that every other student would likely cover in their essays, but this was how much running meant to me. And it’s not like it kept me out of my dream school, after all.

I may not be the first person to finish a race on my cross-country team, but running nonetheless has taken a first-place position on my list of passions. Oddly enough, if you told me in middle school I would be running six days a week and thoroughly enjoying it, I would have concluded you were talking to the wrong person. I was completely unathletic as a child; I hated running. I must have been crazy to join the high school cross-country team, but it has become the most enriching, satisfying experience of my life. Ultimately, running has shaped every part of who I have come to be.

Initially, I had my doubts about what kind of a runner I would make. I eventually found the quantitative elements of the sport – the honors, titles, and medals – didn’t matter to me at all.

Instead, I learned how to push my limits physically and mentally. I pressed the boundaries and discovered what I could really do. I worked hard, pushed a little more each day, and found that I got improvement and results. With every practice, I could go a little farther and a little faster than the day before, simply because I had tried my hardest yesterday. I saw a problem, conquered it, and could move on to better things, bit by bit. I translated this tenacity to academics and have ventured to learn what I once was convinced I could not master. In this manner, running has become a constant source of triumph for me and will continue to bolster my resolve through college and beyond.

In addition to changing my thinking, running also helped me discover a new approach to clearing my mind and feeling complete at the end of the day. I am not quite as happy on days that I am forced not to run (due to injury or inclement weather). I like to have a goal that I can accomplish daily. Recently, I became injured and could not run for several weeks. In those weeks, I discovered – rather ironically – how devoted I am to my sport.

The longer I practiced, the more I came to enjoy the workouts and the “runner’s high,” best described as the second wind and exhilaration a runner feels after an extended period of exertion. I even came to value challenges such as running uphill. The day I set my current personal record for the 800m, I sprinted through the park, the wind blowing against me and leaves fluttering away from under my feet, and felt as though I could understand what it might be like to fly. The experience will remain in my memory as one of my happiest ever.

I love that I can apply my philosophies about running to anything else I have encountered in life while I am not wearing my running shoes. This has meant more to me than any other accomplishment of mine because it came from somewhere out in left field—an area in which I never thought I could achieve anything meaningful. I suppose I also learned for myself to “never say never.” I have come to find an uncommon peace and fulfillment through athletics. I adore running because it is wholly different from what I already accomplish in school. I have discovered a new enthusiasm for a joy that has rewarded me many times over for the effort I place in it.

It’s been too windy to run this week.

I am pretty good at running, dammit. It’s my ‘thing.’ I trained with one of the best teams in the state throughout high school and I worked until I was keeping pace with the best girls on the team. So I can really do this, and I should do it more often. I remember when I set a personal record for 800m – I got a small taste of what it must be like to fly.

i went on a run today

Got the Podcast for Running by Robert Ullery. now i need to just get out and do my first run.

I ran to my church (2.5 miles round trip) and sat inside for a while and then went outside and watched the children playing in the schoolyard, started running home, took pictures of people’s cats sitting in front of their houses along the way, and then decided I wasn’t tired enough. Is that a problem?

Well, I started.

I started at a weight of 290 pounds in November 2007. This month I reached 218 pounds and I am below my long term average weight, which was much too high for 6 foot 4. I started out like many others on this forum running for a quarter mile and then walking a quarter mile. That went to running half mile/walking half mile, and so on and so forth. Today I can run up to 4-5 miles uninterrupted with a 5K average. I can walk 2 miles uphill at 3.5 mph at 10% incline and run a 5K in under an hour very easily. 5K time is about 24 minutes, though I look to get this time closer to 20 minutes in the long run. Good luck to all on this forum with keeping the obesity demons at bay!

so… today I started running again.
It was, well, a start.
Painful, didn’t run very long, very red on the face and completely out of breath but… totally worth!
Let’s so how the “keep on” will go.