Friday, June 1, 2012

friday afternoon (Pre) inspiration...

I love to run. Do you love to run? Or even like to run occasionally? If not running, is there some kind of challenge you enjoy? A certain workout or activity that you have to push yourself to complete? If so, why do you do it?

Some days running is extremely difficult, sometimes it is a breeze (more often than not, it is the former). Regardless, I love it. Though I love it now, this has not always been the case. Some people are born to run and some are naturally talented at it. I, however, was neither. I have played sports involving running basically since I could walk and talk. But running for sport, just to run, I did not begin until I was about 14 years old. At that time I hated running because it was difficult and I was no good at it. One of my best friends talked me into running with her. And looking back, I am so glad she did.

Since then I have developed a love for running. I have grown into it. Over the years I have run for varying reasons. Whether it was training for the Boston Half Marathon, a 5k, or just for fun. Lately I feel like running is an outlet for me to shed the stress, for my mental health and to maintain my sanity.

It never fails that my worst runs are always the ones I go into thinking that I have to run because of all those cookies I ate yesterday or that beer in which I indulged last night. I don't know about you, but usually when I feel like I have to something, I lose my motivation. Like most things, running is as much of a mental exercise as it is a physical one. It has taken me a long time to really understand this and to really understand that attitude truly affects how successful we are at all of the challenges we pursue (not just running).

Why do you run?

Once you find the right reasons, you are going to have a lot more fun doing it (whatever it is).

Though talking about running, Pre's advice applies to almost everything we do...

"You have to wonder at times what you're doing out there. Over the years, I've given myself a thousand reasons to keep running, but it always comes back to where it started. It comes down to self-satisfaction and a sense of achievement."
~ Steve Prefontaine