I Gave Up

Lately I’ve been feeling like I’m going through the motions with running.  I’ve been trying to figure out where the heck my running mojo went.  Tendonitis in my mid to upper right arch has really got me down.

A few days ago I popped into a locally owned running store, A Runners Mind and spoke with Monte about joining their running group.  He gave me some helpful info & his card with their blog address to check out.

I stumbled on this post and it finally clicked.  I knew exactly what was off: 

#8 Stop Giving Up

Whoa…

Really? 

Me? 

Nahhh, me give up?  I’ve never given up on running before…….Have I?

…….crickets……

Holy smokes, Batman………that’s exactly it……..I gave up hope I’d ever fully recover from this injury punk.

You see after that 5 mile run I did on the 11th, my arch has ached off & on since.

Dang you all or nothing mentality.

Likely came back too fast, but the thought of starting over again freaking kills me. 

But I want to run on my terms.  If I want to run for 5 days in a row, I wanna do it.  Respecting the injury is the hardest part.

I started over at least 4 times since August.  I get better & start gaining momentum, but then life happens.  Between Thanksgiving, Mike so nicely giving me his germs, Christmas, entertaining Lu I lost my motivation to run.

I’m better than that.  I absolutely love running with all of my heart & soul.  <—Wow, that’s really profound for me.

I think my biggest roadblocks are motivation and momentum.

So starting today, I’m going to semi-start over for the last time and keep going.  When life happens & I have to take several days off in a row, I’m going to suck  it up, and cut my mileage back for the first few runs & keep building from there.

Insert 5k

I can’t wait to pour my heart & soul into my favorite sport again.  And catch that runners high, feel my hips & muscles ache so bad I can’t walk for 2 days, not be able to use my hands for at least a half hour after a run, cross the finish line and can’t talk because hyperventilating because I’m so overcome with emotion and disbelief that my body just ran 13.1 freaking miles.  Mike kinda likes the last one a little too much.

Injuries suck, I don’t have to.

*****Note from Mike: I just proofread this for my wonderful wife, and I know that she loves to run. I believe that she will do it again. I love Jacqueline, but she is not an emotional person at all! I mean she doesn’t ever cry, and when she does, it just makes her mad, then the tears turn to anger, and believe me. You don’t want to be around for that!

With all that said, I witnessed my beautiful wife finish a 1/2 marathon last year and completely break down crying from sheer joy. She had completely done something that she, me, her family, didn’t think she could accomplish. That is a memory as a proud husband of an incredible woman that I will remember forever. I love you J!