Baby We Were Born to Run

Earlier this year in a fit of what some may call insanity I took the plunge to sign up for a running clinic. Jordan agreed that he would do one with me. I’ve been a completely unmotivated runner over the past couple of years and I really needed to find a way to get my groove back.

In highschool I took my first running clinic through the Running Room. It was the Learn to Run clinic and it slowly taught me how to run 5k by including walking breaks in your run training. The first week we ran one minute and walked one minute. Each week we added another minute to our run until we were running 12 minutes and walking one minute until, we had run 5k. These were pretty humble beginnings and they were just the baby steps I needed to get into running.

After realizing that I actually could physically run 5k I didn’t stop. Over the next 10 years I continued to run, sometimes often, sometimes not. I would cycle between 3 and 5k runs and would occasionally sign up for a 5K race to keep myself motivated.

Over the past two years of having a house, running really fell by the wayside. I had a lot less free time and it felt like every run I went on was a struggle. I took up rock climbing and cycling instead because I was bored and frustrated with running.

All of that led to this year when my friend Laura and I started doing some 5K training together. I knew I could run 5K just by sheer will of determination but I also knew I was way out of whack when it came to my distance running. We signed up for a 5K together and then I signed up for one with Jordan, and then Laura and I signed up for an 8K at the end of the summer. The ball was officially rolling.

In that whirlwind of motivation I started talking to Jordan about doing a running room clinic to keep me accountable. I wanted a group to run with that would ask where I was if I didn’t show up and I wanted to put some money on the table to up the ante. I was originally going to take the 5K clinic and Jordan was interested in the 10K. The 10K was a mountain I did not see myself even daring to imagine scaling. I’d never purposely run anything more than 5K and my slow and steady pace made me scared to try to run any further with a group.

I don’t know what came over me one day though because I clicked on the signup for the 10K clinic for myself and Jordan, entered my credit card info and all of a sudden we were both signed up.

I figure that if I’m scared to do it, then I need to do it or I’ll always be running the same 5Ks forever. There was once a time when I didn’t know I could run a 5K and the Running Room changed that, I was ready for that thinking to be changed again.

We’re currently in the middle of the 10K training and I’ll tell you: it’s been damn hard. We meet three times a week: Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sunday mornings. The first run we ran 5K and I was quickly found myself at the back of the pack and I’ve stayed there ever since but it doesn’t bother me one bit. I show up every week, and straggle at the back running the exact same distance as everyone else, just at my own pace. Jordan told me I may be slow, but I’m a machine that doesn’t stop and I’m proud of that.

I’ve already surpassed what I thought I could do. I’ve done hill training, I’ve showed up when no one else has and ended up running a long run on a hot Sunday morning with just the instructor, and I’ve run over 11K now and felt amazing when it was over.

<< My very 1st 10K- which I can thank to hill training. 

A true killer that also racks up the kms apparently>>

<<My longest run to date!>>

I still get a little bit of dread on run days but I go anyways and that’s all that matters to me. I also get a whole lot of dread thinking about the fact that we’re supposed to run 13K in one go by the end of this but I’ll save that dread for another day.

For anyone interested in a running group like this one looking up the Running Room clinics in your area. They’re game changers!

<<Honestly, this photo just needed to see the light of day because it's amazing>>

From the desk of:

Taylor Brown

The Turtle to your Hare