Once a Runner....

Today I sweated through an hour and half on the elliptical machine, while I listened to The Weekend- Can't Feel My Face and read CNN headlines on TV, all while maintaining my heart rate above 160. I would have much rather been doing this:

Long run around Bonelli Park

Once upon a time I was a runner that ran carefree and pain free. Something like those runners you see on Runner's World magazine that are pictured running with a picturesque scenery in the background and a huge Colgate smile across their face. In fact, once upon a time I was pictured on High School Runner Magazine, full page spread, running this very way! 

Junior year HS track, start line Ayala vs. Diamond Bar

I was a freshmen in high school when I fell in love with running. I ran cross country for a school that had a very very good program. I could still recall the excitement of my first cross country meet... all the anxiety and adrenaline flowing. This was a huge race, one organized into a varsity level race, followed by grade level races. I was racing the freshmen race. The top 100 runners to cross the finish line in each race received a medal, which pretty much meant "everyone got a medal". I finished 106th and one of maybe 10 other girls that did not get a medal in my race! I wasn't disappointed at all, in fact I could care less about that medal. However, this made me grow hungry for greatness.

The improvement was slow. The following year at the same race I just described.... I was 12th in the sophomore race. The following year I was 2nd in the junior race, and grabbed a spot on my school varsity team. In four years my 3 mile time improved from mid 25 minutes to mid 18 minutes. The improvements I made had come through dedication. I recall my coach giving me a clipping from a magazine featuring an old model car that happened to be named the same as my last name. The caption under the featured car said, "it's the little car that does everything well", and my coach had highlighted that part to emphasize the breakthrough I had made in running. I wasn't amazing by any means, at the most I was decent, but I felt great about my accomplishments, because that the harder I worked, the more I got out of the sport I loved so much.

3000 meters representing Cal Poly at USC Invite

Fast forward to racing in college... sophomore year... my first real injury... Plantar Fasciitis. I ran in pain for months, how could I not? our team had a shot at making DII nationals for the first time in almost 20 years and I was their number 2-3 runner. Then one day I couldn't get out of bed. The pain in my foot had caused me to compensate in other areas and I went from having shooting pains to sciatica, that morning my back hurt so much I had to roll out of bed because I could not sit up. This was when I stopped running, well only after pushing myself two more weeks to a poor performance at regionals, which caused us missing nationals by 5 points. 5 points that still haunt me today. I took 8 months off from running altogether, and after slowly easing back into running, towards the end of my collegiate career I did manage to pull out a couple more personal bests in the 5k.

You might be thinking so what! everyone gets an injury here and there right? Yes, but for me plantar fasciitis has never really gone away, although I can go months or even as much as a year without it being an issue, the flare ups continue, and when it's not plantar fasciitis some other injury decides it wants to slow my running down. I can honestly not remember the last time I ran pain free, or had more that two good months of training before I had to back off because of an injury. You would think this would stop me, that I would have found another sport by now, but at part of me just wants to win this battle against my body telling me I shouldn't run. So I reason with it (my body), I back off, I take care of it, I ice, foam roll, see my chiropractor, cross train, and then silently laugh at it (my body) as I return for more running.

Once I was a Runner that ran carefree and pain-free. Now I am a Runner that runs smart persevering against the odds. I take each day as it comes knowing that if I couldn't run today, I will live to run another day... because in the end running loves me just as much as I love it.

Happy swinging that ponytail during a run