After I had my first baby, I was 25 pounds overweight. I carried it with me for many months. When my son's first birthday went by and I was still 25 pounds overweight I called up my friend who also had a child the same age as mine...(she only gained 20 pounds throughout her pregnancy compared to my 45 and was back into her regular jeans as soon as her c-section incision healed) and asked her if she would start jogging with me. So one day per week we met at the community center and for 30 dreadful minutes I would walk three laps and run one (it took 15 laps to equal 1 mile). She stuck by me and within a month I ran my first mile straight through in my entire life. Slowly but surely within 7 months of meeting on Wednesday nights...I ran my first 5k at the local summer festival. The painstaking 35 minutes and 36 seconds I endured to finish those 3.1 miles I will never forget. Being that I have never been a very athletic person and I was able to finish something of that enormity made me feel like I could do anything. That day running shifted from a weight loss technique to a way of life. Four years later I completed the 5k in 28 minutes and 29 seconds...7 minutes faster!
When I leave my front door with my head phones in pumping my favorite music into my head with my Nike's strapped on tight I am no longer a mom or a wife. There are no demands on me or my time. No one asks anything of me except for myself. Throughout the course of a day...I feel pulled in a million directions. Work has expectations of me, my kids have needs to be fulfilled, my husband even has daily demands that must be met. My laundry room is always calling me, along with the stove. When I run...all of that gets left behind. My mind can go blank. I am the only one that puts demands on myself...to run longer, run harder, run faster then the day before. I decide what I am going to do at that moment...whether I am going to run 3 miles or 6 miles...or try to complete an 8 minute mile or go for an easy lazy jog.
A lot of people don't understand why I would go for a 7 mile jog...in rainy 30 degree weather. I few years ago I wouldn't have either! But having those precious few minutes when no one can find me because I'm on some back county road by myself with no cell phone or baby attached to my hip is the only thing that gets me through the week. Taking time to look up at the sky or the trees and remembering that He created this life for me and everything around me puts me at peace. At those moments when I'm 5 miles into my run and I don't think I can make it back home He fills me with love and motivation to push just a bit further.
When I run I know God is with me and he helps put me at peace so that I can struggle through another day, and be able to go to sleep knowing everything is alright...
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