The Running Bug?

This new year I’m resolving to share more parts of my life on this blog. I love recipe posts and photography, but this space started out as more of a journal for me and I’d like to think it still can be. Hopefully you don’t mind! I wanted to talk a little about one thing in my life that’s a bit of a change. I’ve been running!

I tried to get into running a few years back. I did the Couch to 5K program with my brother and ran a 5K in the summer of 2012. I thought the program was really great and I was happy with my 30ish minute time for being a brand new runner. Since it was a tiny race I even won 1st place in my age division!

After that I tried to keep things going by running on my own, but quickly realized that without a race to motivate me it just wasn’t going to happen. I didn’t find my everyday runs to be enjoyable at all, and the only thing I really looked forward to was crossing a finish line. So I signed up to do an 8K in the spring of 2013 in Washington D.C. (we were living in Virginia at the time about to graduate law school).

I ran that race with my friend Katherine (well not technically with her, she was like 8 waves ahead of me because I’m so slow, but we ran the same race) and had an awesome time. It was SUCH a scenic and surreal place to run a race and I was proud of myself for running 5 miles for the first time.

And then it was pretty much over. I kind of felt like I hit my maximum with the 8K and wasn’t confident that my body was really made to run. Fast forward to over a year later (several months ago), when I had just gotten sworn in and was in the thick of job searching (which I still am by the way). My exercise life was in a coma and with the career struggles I was facing I started feeling like I wanted to make a change and take better care of myself. I remember watching Youtube one night (which is how I spend most nights, let’s be honest) and seeing a guy documenting his experience running the New York City Marathon. He made the point that all those thousands of people didn’t have some kind of magical powers or superhuman strength that made their goal possible. They were all just people. Who decided they wanted to run a marathon. And the main thing stopping the ordinary person from accomplishing something like that is self-doubt. For some reason that really struck a chord with me and I thought to myself…YEAH. Why couldn’t I do it?! Why couldn’t I be one of those people, too? What’s really stopping me?

So that was when I decided to set my goal. I want to run a marathon!

But, bummer, that’s easier said than done. And since I let myself slide so much since I started running back in 2012, I’ve lost ANY progress that I had gained. So I started back at square one, working my way up to a half mile, then 1 mile, then 2, then now at 3 as my new regular run. I instagrammed this from the gym after a run last week (follow me on Instagram @adashofsoul):

I don’t think I ever mentioned it here, but I (very slowly) ran a really fun 5K with a bunch of Tone It Up ladies last month to help get myself back on track. It was a Blacklight 5K, which is essentially a color run that happens at night. The powder they throw on you glows in the dark and makes the whole experience so weird but so fun. I had Jason take a picture under our backlight as soon as I got home. Don’t I look freaky??

So what now?

Well I have something to tell you. I’m running a half marathon in April!!! I feel slightly insane saying that because running 3 miles is still a challenge for me and I’m signing up to run 13.1 in just a few months. But ya know what…why not? Today I’m choosing to believe in myself. This is one thing in my life right now that I feel like I have control over accomplishing, and I’m going to do everything in my power to accomplish it. And I’m hoping that running the half will help me to accomplish the full marathon goal later in the year. I plan to take you on the journey with me and I hope you’ll follow along. Training starts next week!!!

-Lauren