Run, Run, Run!

I have been active my whole life. My mom has told me I was always on the go. I’d run around our house, all over our yard, and down our lane. Sometimes, I thought about it, but for the most part, running, was just how I got from one place to the next.

I loved playing basketball. It was fast. I loved sprinting and relays. Mostly, because I got to run fast. When I was in the seventh grade, we had the opportunity to be in volleyball. I didn’t participate because I thought it was too slow. I didn’t try it the next year either. When I was a freshman, I was finally convinced to at least try it. It wasn’t as fast as I was used to, but it was fun to be playing a sport and be a part of something. I really enjoyed it. Later on when I was teaching, I was also coaching basketball and volleyball. I actually preferred to coach volleyball, even though I enjoyed playing basketball more.

I played basketball and volleyball in junior college. I would go on the stair-stepper before practice. My teammates thought I was crazy, but it was just my way of clearing my mind! When Lawyerboy and I met in junior college, I quickly found out that he was on the hockey team. Hockey was a big deal at our school, for most people. Not me. I rarely went to games, even though it was the thing to do. I tried to go with everyone my first year, but was frozen the whole time and would gladly stay behind. A lot of people wanted to date or ‘hang out’ with the hockey players. I truly could care less what sport you played. If you were nice and funny, I was all for being friends. It was neat that he played hockey simply because Lawyerboy understood being committed to a team and what all goes into it. I also liked knowing being active was important to him.

When I started teaching and coaching, I didn’t always have time to workout. As much as I loved my job, I needed time to myself. I would be at the school well after everyone had went home for the night planning and correcting papers, but I wasn’t getting any ‘me’ time. In my second year of teaching, I wouldn’t leave the school until I went into the gym and had ‘me’ time to clear my head. Normally, I would prefer to walk outside, but I went to the gym because it was dark outside and I can be a bit of a scaredy cat! I started by walking because I had seen many adult people in my life walk laps around a gym. After a week, I was a little bored. I love going for walks, but it is more fun outside where you have things to look at. So, I started to run. It had been awhile since college where I had to run sprints and crusher/ladders to help get into game shape. First, I ran a minute and then walked a minute. The next day I would run two minutes and walk one. Each day that week I increased my run time by a minute.

Every day, seven days a week, I made at least an hour of time for myself to walk or walk/run. Eventually I got to running for a whole hour around the gym. I loved every moment of it. People couldn’t understand that I just went round and round. It was my time to clear my head and listen to my iPod that Lawyerboy bought me for Valentine’s Day.

When Lawyerboy and I moved to the Twin Cities, I would walk from my cousin’s place to Lake Phalen. When I got there, I would run around it. It was three miles long. I would then walk back. So exercising was the one thing I did each day, besides watching Kelly, that was for me. Kelly truly kept me sane. I was so lonely by myself all day long and I needed to laugh. Exercising kept me saner. It was my time to think about all the blessings I had in order to try to stop feeling sorry for myself for not having a teaching job or friends here.

When we decided to get an apartment, I was excited that it had a workout room. I enjoyed going outside, but was worried about the winter weather. I would no longer have my school’s gym to workout in! So, having access to a gym made me happy! Soon, I would start substitute teaching and working at Target and have little free time. Exercising, watching Kelly, and seeing Lawyerboy were three things that I tried to keep constants in my life.  It wasn’t easy….

People often ask what types of exercise I do and how I find the time. My answer: Running is what I do most and the above is how it all began. I do other things like dancing, yoga, and biking on nice days, which I will share more about one day for those of you who have no desire to run or can’t because of an injury. As for how I find the time, I make time… Period.