Why I Run....

As Meghan and I were running in the Duke Forrest a few days ago, she mentioned how she fell in love with running while living in Germany because she would walk out her door and into the woods where she could run for hours. I immediately laughed and told her that not once in my life have I ever said, "I love running," or for that matter, "I fell in love with running". So the question is, if I don't love running, why do I run?.... Well, it's probably a complicated answer that requires you to get to know me a little.

TENNIS DAYS AND MY HATRED FOR RUNNING
From the time I was 10 years old until I graduated from college, I considered myself to be a "tennis player". I spent a lot of my childhood and college days practicing and competing in tennis tournaments or playing another college team. I loved training, having a goal, challenging myself, being part of a team and competing. While being a "tennis player" certainly requires running, this mostly consists of short sprints, agility drills and an occasional three mile run. I never enjoyed this part of training. In fact I hated this part. If you ask anyone I knew in college, they would all vouch for me about how much I hated running.....I hated it with a passion.

THE RUNNING JOURNEY BEGINS
So how do you go from hating running to wanting to run marathons? After college, I found exercising to be very mundane. I would run for 30 minutes or go to a 30 minute spin class and if I was feeling especially motivated I might do a few abs and lift some weights, but that would be it. Why else would I do more? I had no reason to be "in shape". My workout routines went on like this for about a year when my sister, Juliette, convinced me that she, my other sister (Angeline), and I should all run a marathon together. Both Juliette and Angeline enjoyed running and thought it would be a fun thing for us to do once in our lives. Somehow, I was convinced by this argument and in May 2004, I entered the NYC Marathon lottery. I rationalized that actually getting into the marathon would be a complete long shot, so there would be little chance that I would actually have to run the marathon. Knowing that entry into NYC via the lottery system is very difficult, I managed to convince my college friend, Erin, to sign up as well, just on the outside chance that I got in and neither of my sisters got in. I certainly did not want to run the NYC marathon by myself. Well, lo and behold neither of my sisters got into the marathon, but by some miracle Erin and I both did. Since I had convinced Erin to sign up, I felt obligated to run NYC with Erin. I figured I should just run one marathon once in my life. So my running journey began....

NYC MARATHON 2004
While Erin and I lived in different cities and ran very different speeds (she was much faster than me), we would call each other the day of a long run and commiserate about how our runs were: the aches and pains (tired muscles, chaffing, sunburn, etc.), the interesting people or lack of people who were also running, and how we felt. After the first few weeks of training, I began getting accustomed to running and could even identify days that I had a "good run" (I ran "fast" and effortlessly and totally forgotthat that I was running XX miles). Soon enough it was time for the real deal, the NYC Marathon. The NYC Marathon was an experience that no words could thoroughly describe. While I ran much slower than I had anticipated, it was my greatest sporting accomplishment up to that point. I was a decent collegiate tennis player, but I had always loved playing tennis. I had never loved running. I somehow was able to mentally push myself to keep running despite me wanting to quit on numerous occasions. I had somehow managed to run 26.2 miles, despite never running more than 5 miles prior to signing up for the marathon. I had succeeded in accomplishing my lofty goal.

POST NYC MARATHON
Immediately after the marathon, I swore that I would never do another one again. But after my whole body soreness slowly wore off, I began to appreciate the journey of running and training for a marathon (my college coach would be so proud). I loved having a goal and something to work towards. Most importantly, I loved pushing myself beyond my comfort level.

To this day, I still don't love running, but I will say that I don't hate it anymore. In fact there are some days that I enjoy it (but not everyday). I don't wake up every morning looking forward to my run, but at the end of the day, I am always glad that I did it. In the end, I guess what keeps me running is the journey.






- Natalie