I fell in love with running at 40.
Why did I embrace the sport in middle age?
That’s part of my growing up story.
I have a bone to pick with labels. As a kid I was neither a nerd nor a jock. I was not a popular pretty girl either. I was just a weird spaced out thin as stick but not beautifully thin kid. Can you see the image in your head?
Anyway, my childhood was defined by my mother’s anxiety & my father’s disability. I didn’t do many of the things that other kids did. One of them was sports.
I was a loser when it came to physical activity.
Till the reality of middle age hit. I gained a bloated tummy & love handles that grew no matter what I stuffed in my mouth. I was forced to think of working out. When I turned 40, I discovered running by chance. I pursued it through bad nights punctuated with my toddler’s crying, sleepy mornings, exhaustion, overwork & nasty falls while running. After hating running for a year, I fell in love with it at 41.
Me & my run became thick like Jack & Rose on the Titanic. A forever love affair. Here’s 6 reasons I love running. If you avoided sports as a kid these are also the reasons why running may be tailor made for you:
Running fulfils an angst from childhood
Growing up, I was a ‘good girl’ who wasn’t going to play anything that got her dirty, sweaty or bruisy. Sports didn’t make the cut on my ‘good girl’ list.
I was the first to get hit by the ball. I was also the most prone to reasoning with coaches why I ‘shouldn’t’ be running the school grounds during ‘drill hour’. More often than not, I “forgot” my running shorts at home.
Can you good girls relate?
Deep down us ‘good girls’ have the desire to be sporty. We want the high of running around, getting dirty, kicking a ball & feeling exhilarated by it all! As we get older, we need an adrenalin rush, a sense of winning, especially when life knocks us down. Running gives that high. Once you taste the sinful high of a sweaty run, you don’t need alcohol as a mood booster. Not to mention it’s a healthy high.
It is a great start to your morning
When you win your morning, you set the tone for the rest of your day. You wake early for your run. This means you can start work earlier than others. You can conquer your work goals of the day much before the rest of the world does.
It will teach you strength, attitude & compassion
Running will test your limits & your endurance. It has pushed me to set goals that I would have earlier found crazy. As an instance, I am attempting a 13-mile marathon this year. Because you know what? Running is less about physical strength and more about grit & perseverance. The ability to run starts in the mind. Then there are the bad days when I find it impossible to run. Maybe I haven’t had enough sleep the night before. I have to be kind to myself those days & remember there’s always tomorrow. Running will test your strength, attitude & compassion. It will strengthen all of these.
Running gives you a sense of achievement
Achieving your weekly mileage, working on your pace, running long distances or simply completing a marathon. Each of these will give you a sense of having achieved the impossible. It will give you the courage to aim higher elsewhere in life.
It will make you a few lifelong friends
I have a kid. My life revolves around my child. Even my friends are other parents. But running gave me a new set of friends with whom I share a passion. Your running friends will become the buddies you turn to when you need some time away from life.
Running will keep you sane
We women lose our sense of self after becoming mothers. We chuck our hobbies & friends from our past. We believe we are doomed to be forlorn for the first five years of our child’s life. Nothing is further from the truth.
You can make your life exciting with morning runs, post run breakfasts, marathons & celebrations beer. You can become a badass who conquers morning roads when the rest of the world is yet to wake.
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This post was previously published on medium.com.
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Photo credit: Miguel A Amutio on Unsplash
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