Focus

I always hated running! Anytime we had to do it for P.E. I dreaded it. In fact I wasn't good at many sports! No one in my family taught me how to kick a ball much less catch one. Whenever someone tossed me a set of keys and I happened to catch it... I secretly rejoiced, imagining that my secret powers had finally kicked in.

When I got to high school we had a coach that started us on 30 second runs. I didn't think I could do it, but I tried anyway. When it was kicked up to a full 60 seconds I was surprised to see that I could achieve that as well. I always tried!

At the end of the semester I was running for 8 minutes straight. When the coach acknowledged that I was achieving what hardly anyone else could, it felt amazing.

However I did not join the track team. It wasn't till 12 years later that I would genuinely try running again. My friend was a regular runner, often did marathons, and I was simply trying to jog a mile without stopping.

I asked her,"What keeps you from walking? Or stopping completely?!"

And she replied with the most profound and simple thing.

"There are two kinds of people in this world. Those who have excuses and those that have results."

Suddenly the idea of jogging a mile became a power struggle between these two concepts. Would I be full of excuses or would I have results in my running? That very evening, I jogged a mile without stopping!

That doesn't mean I had a perfect gait! It doesn't mean I was on full throttle. I paced myself, saying any speed was acceptable as long as I didn't walk or stop.

Then one mile became two miles!

That later became two miles with a sprint at the end.

That evolved into running around the neighborhood as much as possible, when possible. I did all of this rain or shine, with whatever bugs smacked me in the face, landed in my eye, or down my throat.

In the middle of a downpour I passed the friend that inspired me to hit my first mile. We were so focused that it wasn't till the last second that we realised who the other person was. We smiled and had our quick hello... I was beaming.

I felt we were two warriors battling the elements, conquering that part of our psyche that could have given us a hundred excuses not to run that day.

Running is not a perfect art... I learned through trial and error how important good running shoes were. That insoles counted for a lot. So do clothes that fit tighter to your body while wicking away sweat.

I'm in no way a perfect runner or jogger. Some days I simply walk... but I do have now, what I didn't have before, and that's a love for picking up my feet and pushing my physical limits.