I Hate it! I Hate it!....

I Hate It! I Hate It! I Hate It! That's what I use to say about running.  When I served, running was something that I had to do.  It was part of my physical training and if you didn't pass, they deemed you out of shape and pointed you to remedial training. Ugh the worse! Which meant physical training  early in the morn (forget sleeping in) as well as (at times) training after work (forget down time).  And maybe that's why I disliked it so much because of the sheer reason of having to do it and it not being optional.

After getting out of the military, I never took up running again.  For one, I was relieved that I didn't have to get tested ever again on something that I really hated to do.  Hip Hip Hooray! But this is the kicker that will shock you. It wasn't until recently that I decided to take up running again.  Yes, I know I said I hated it repeatedly but I decided to give it another go. Why you may ask?  Because I did not want the idea of running and the act itself to defeat me.  I did not want it to win.

Over and over, I kept telling myself that I was not a runner.  That I couldn't run X amount of miles.  There's no way I could do that.  So forth and so on. Fear, doubt, etc.  Until one day, I got really quiet with myself and realized that I was sabotaging my opportunity to possibly be a great runner or just simply a runner because of my thoughts.  aha! My thoughts were what was holding me back and nothing else.  So once I changed my thoughts about running, everything changed!  I can't say that the idea of hitting the pavement was not at all a bit daunting because it was.  But I got up and started anyway.

Once I started, I can't say that it wasn't painful and that I didn't want to stop.  Because it was very painful as each part of my body ached and I did want to stop as my breathing tried to catch up with the next breath.  But I just kept pushing, kept breathing, kept thinking that I could do it.  Pushing through the pain as each foot hit the pavement and as each song on my playlist pumped me up, pumped my thoughts up to get me to the finish line.  Running does wonders for my body but I have to admit that it does wonders for my mind.  It challenges me and I push myself to try to go further than I ran before.  The farthest I've ran so far is 6 miles and can't wait to see how far my mind with body in tow will take me.

Mind over matter.  Thoughts control everything.