Today I stand before you, a proud runner! Because I ran 21K! And I have never run that far before. The meter usually gets stuck at 16K.
I had been planning this run for ages, but chickened out every Sunday. This new run would take me to a village about 10K from our home, and then I would have to run the same distance to get home again. But new, and longer distances intimidate me, and make my mind race. It’s not so much my body that’s holding me back, as it is my (evil) mind! ‘It’s really far,’ it will whisper. ‘And what if you can’t make it back?’ or ‘It will be réálly boring!’
Jeff Galloway, who introduced me to the perks of alternating running with walking, says in his books that you have to trick your mind. Just tell it you won’t go all that far. In this case I told my mind I would call my husband to come and get me once I got to the village. And once I had run those 10K, my mind agreed it was worth to try and make it back on my own. So all in all I ran 20K. The extra 1K is caused by the fact I felt the urgent need to have a cup of coffee at the pancakehouse near our home.
And now I’m proudly typing this post. I’ve showered, and I’m feeling refreshed and proud of myself. Because today I did something I wasn’t at all certain I cóuld, but I did it anyway!
Running is a great way to challenge yourself, and then pleasantly surprise yourself!
