According To Sam

So, sometime around my last blog post (I know, I’m awful) I started running 5k races. After probably three years of trying, my lovely friend Meghan convinced me to sign up for the Dawg Dash in October 2016. So I showed up that morning and proceeded to, very slowly, and with many walking breaks, finish my first race.

I’d had almost a phobia of running in a real, organized event. Ive never been all that athletic, coordinated, or (for most of my life) all that interested in exercise or running. I was an active kid, enjoyed bike riding and running for the sake of capture the flag, but organized sports required a level of interest and concentration outside of my wheelhouse.

I started exercising about four years ago as a way to improve my mental health. Started small with 20 minutes of elliptical around three times a week. I didn’t expect to feel a difference, but I did. Both physically and mentally. While I’ve consistently stuck with exercise since then, I’ve been somewhat inconsistent in sticking with a particular exercise to finish a goal. Last weekend, I finished a goal.

After my first 5k, I decided to sign up for a second. I no longer felt intimidated since I had was pretty sure there was no way I could have done worse than the previous one, and even if I did, no one was booing me at the finish line. That one went better, so I signed up for a third. By the time that was done, I’d finished three runs in the last three months of 2016. It hadn’t been that hard, so I decided to see if I could do one every month in 2017.

I wouldn’t call it a resolution, because in December when I suggested that I might try it, I had every expectation that I would not follow through. Meghan suggested signing up for a race on Jan 3, so before I had time to reconsider, I was already one month in. In February, my sister and her husband came out to run a Valentine’s race.

Over the next few months I ran. I ran at least one race every month. I ran with friends and family, and I ran alone. I ran between races, sometimes less regularly than others, but I ran. I never won a race, but I never lost one either. I accomplished my goal last weekend, quite literally, by putting one foot in front of the other.