Why? I get that asked of me a lot. Why do you run? Here’s my story –
I have struggled with being healthy for most of my adult life. Never really happy with how I looked or how I felt, but not really unhappy enough to do much more about it than sporadic dieting and/or exercise. I wasn’t really obese, but I wasn’t thin by any stretch of the imagination. Just in that zone where you get comfortable.
In Feb. 2014, we decided to take my little one on a birthday trip to Disney World. When we got home, I started the daunting task of going through the over 1,000 photos we (and others in our group of 9) took during the week long trip. Looking at photo after photo after photo, there was no denying it, I looked FAT. That week I decided that was it. I was going to get into shape. I didn’t have a whole lot of disposable income due to just dropping $5,000 on a week long Disney trip, so I figured, hey, it’s free to run. I used a gift card left over from Christmas to Kohls to buy a pair of Nike running shoes and downloaded a free Couch to 5K app on my phone and hit the road. Almost 3 years later, I have learned so much more (including that running is NOT free) and I’m still at it. I’ve lost 40 pounds, become so much healthier, accomplished a number of goals and made life-long friendships.
So for me, ultimately it started as a free/cheap way to lose weight, but running has become a bit addictive to me now. I start to get antsy if I go to long without a run now. It has become a part of who I am.
How about you? Why do you run?