Motivation to Run

Julia at Pain, Pride and Perserverance is doing a Monday FOOTnotes each week.  Each week she will pick a topic to discuss and then we can choose to blog about that topic as well and link it to her post. Last week her topic was Motivation to Run.  I finally had a chance to sit down and type up some of my motivators.

For me, I am motivated to run for:

1)  my family.  I got into running because I was "jealous" that everyone else in my family was running.  My lil bro, lil sis and baby sis all ran cross country in high school when I was in my undergrad and grad programs.  My dad got into running by running with the siblings so they didn't have to run on the country roads by themselves.  I got "jealous" seeing how much time my siblings got to spend with my dad on their runs.  While I was in my last year teaching in Bucks County, I decided to train for a 5k to see if I could do it.  I got bit by the racing bug quickly and have been running now for 7 years.  My lil bro doesn't run anymore, but my sisters, dad and I still run.  They are my running buddies and you can often find us doing training runs together and road races together.  We have done a gazillion 5k's, many 10k's, several 15k's, dozen half marathons and a marathon together.  Running gives me my family time with my bestest buddies.

2)  fitness and time outdoors.  I enjoy spending time outdoors and keeping in shape.  I hate running on a treadmill and very rarely do.  I would much rather run in the sun, rain, snow, hail and wind them torture myself on a treadmill. I've always  been thin but as I get older it is getting harder to be the "thin" I want to be.  I miss the days of begin thin without trying.  Now I have a few trouble spots that drive me crazy.  Running helps keep those spots from getting out of control.  It keeps me in shape, but not near the "good shape" I think I am.  Since I've been focusing on cross-training I realize I'm not in as good of shape as I thought.  My cardio is good - but everything else needs work so now I'm trying to balance running and cross training.

3) mental health.  Running is my time to unwind, vent and destress.  I often run with my dad, sisters and SIL so we use that time to catch up and share our daily events.  Occassionally we all take our turns venting - but look out when that happens because our feet try to keep up with our mouths and we usually end up gasping for breathe.   Even when we run together we take the time to just run and get lost in our own thoughts and sounds of our footsteps together.  There is nothing better than the sounds of the great outdoors and four other sets of footsteps beside you.  Running is relaxing, refreshing, and energizing.  It gives me time to think.  In the summer I run a lot by myself and when I do that is my time to meditate, talk to God and day dream.

4)  strength.  Running really is a matter of mind over matter.  Running gives my body lots of strength but it also strengthens who I am.  It has taught me so much about myself and my own capabilities.  If you would have told me in in high school that I would complete countless races, dozen half marathons and a full marathon before I was 30 I would have told you that you were crazy - I couldn't do that.    But I have because you can do anything you put your mind to, with support, dedication, training and willpower.

These are just some of my thoughts on what motivates me to run.  Ask me next week, and I will probably have other motivators to share.  For me, running is my chance to push myself, to go beyond what I think I can do, and remember how thankful I am to be me.