I was never a super athletic kid. I did like to ride my bike…
…one of my favourite things to do on summer vacation was to ride a bike around the Stanley Park Seawall in Vancouver…
…and giving my Cabbage Patch Kids a ride on my grandfather’s stationary bike was fun too.
When it came to sports I was horrendously uncoordinated. I think I took a softball to the noggin more than once. I tried playing volleyball in middle school but the year there were more girls who wanted on the team than there were slots I found myself the team manager instead of a player. And as for running, I hated it with a passion. I remember staring at my phys ed teacher’s Asics as he explained the concept of a runner’s high and I just couldn’t picture that it would be possible for running to be that enjoyable. And running more than a mile? Forget it! Instead I threw myself into band, first rocking out on the snare drum…
…and later moving on to the sweet tones of the clarinet.
Some days when I go out for a run I wonder how I graduated from a fervent anti-runner to a marathoner and Ironman. I think it was when I first discovered racing that there was something that drew me in.
…one of the oldest race photos I could find from back in 2006, coincidently also on the Seawall in Stanley Park…
Let’s face it, sometimes a fancy medal or two is a good motivator!
But there really is more to running for me than the medal at the end of the race. I realized that I hated running as a kid because I had no clue about how to pace a run. We would run a mile in gym class on a regular basis. I would always start off, guns blazing, trying to keep up with the speedy kids. That lasted less than a lap and then it would be a slow walk/run to the finish. When I finally crossed the finish line my phys ed teacher would sigh and exclaim that I should be a faster runner because I had such long legs.
…no, not a running photo, but definitely from the “I hate running”/spiral perm era of my life…
My coach has been giving me a lot of workouts where I am supposed to increase my pace over an interval or the course of a run lately. It wasn’t that long ago that I would frequently start off too fast and not be able to hit my goal. It is now incredibly gratifying to see that I can dial in my pace and nail my descending intervals. I’m so happy to now be that runner who can get out and enjoy the scenery and appreciate running for what it is. Not blowing up early on in the run is a nice bonus too. It may have taken twenty-some odd years but I get it now!
How did you become a runner? Did you always enjoy running or was it something you discovered later on?
I too am an adult onset runner. I ran in high school and did lots of informal sports, but I was a big time loner back then. Then I didn’t run for many years. 30 years, almost exactly. Then I realized I was on track for diabetes and a heart attack. Running was the hardest activity to pick up. I struggled with it for a long long time. I still struggle with it. But somewhere along the way I learned to enjoy being outside running at a nice easy pace. Even better is chatting to a buddy. I’m not a racer, though. I don’t have that burn of competition.
I hated running and was the kid who failed the mile run because I could never make it under 12 minutes.
Failed every year.
Started in my late 20s and feel in LOVE
Um, sweetie… your calves in that last photo are nice! Totally runner calves! Don’t you love seeing that on yourself? I only say that because I can 100% relate to your post. I recall a specific time I got clunked right smack dab in the forehead with a softball and always coming in dead last to the mile. Never the athlete. So I can appreciate other runners who got themselves to this point — the point where you like running and have great calves — from hard work, not genetics. It’s pretty amazing how far we can come, right?! (For me, I hated running until it gave me a way to escape a household of fighting parents and having to take care of my younger siblings, it gave me personal sanity in my post high-school teen years. And then the rest just followed.)
Ohh I’m still on the very beginning stages of running and working out in general. Trying to figure out pacing… but when my husband took me out for one of my first runs with him, he was actually explaining breathing and pace and stride and somehow on my own after that it clicked. I always thought running was just painful and I felt extremely nauseous and sick when I ran because I would start out too fast. I’m not sure how all my gym teachers in my life failed to express this… but somehow exercising never made sense and I just associated it with pain and sweat. It’s really nice to finally feel like I’m starting to “get it”. And yeah, your calves look amazing! So much power! 🙂