Finding My Running Passion…Again

Today I am super stoked because I got to run with passion after a long time.

How it began…

It just started out as an ordinary walk in the park…literally! I was at our regional park at 6:30am to drop off my high schooler for his cross country race. And since his race was not due to start for another two hours I decided to do some walking of my own.

It was a beautiful morning. The sun had decided to hide for awhile and the overcast sky allowed for a perfect temperature so it wasn’t too cold and nor was it muggy or humid.

And the park had so many options…grass, dirt, sidewalks…all in a gorgeous setting with a huge pond and surrounded by trees and hills.

So I began my walk just enjoying the setting and the perfect weather conditions. I walked on the many sidewalks weaving in and out of the race crowds. Soon I wandered into parts of the park that hardly had folks walking about.

And that’s when I decided to start jogging. Thankfully I came prepared with the right shoes and clothing. (One has to in order to traverse even the spectator areas of a cross country course).

Finding the groove…

Soon my jog got a little faster and I found a good path to run in. I had found a trail not being used for the race and so there was hardly anybody else. Encouraged by the pace I was able to run at, I kept going. And soon I was out of the regional park and into the neighboring state park all the while running, enjoying and thoroughly enjoying myself.

The trail was mostly flat with just a few minimal inclines every now and then. I was surrounded by the beauty of Californian terrain on a morning that was my perfect running weather.

I was loving it and enjoying myself. I was surprising myself and so I wanted to just keep going. But I had make sure I was balancing my enthusiasm with caution. I hadn’t run in months…at least not like this. And so I had to be careful I didn’t overdo it. So eventually I turned back around and got back to where I started.

The freedom of it all…

All in all I had been gone almost an hour and I guess I spent a good 45 minutes just running. But throughout the whole time I did not once measure my pace or try to calculate the distance. I think this added to the fun bringing in a level of freedom and joy that I hadn’t experienced in a while.

As far back as I can remember I had been measuring and calculating every workout, every walk, every run…etc, so I can always track and try to push myself further. But today’s run was about re-discovering the joy of running. And so as much as I was tempted to start the app on my phone to tell me how much I achieving, I chose not to.

And this was exhilarating!!!

Not taking it for granted…

However, I am sure that if I had done any level of tracking, I am sure that the statistics would not be worth bragging at all. But given my journey the last several months, today’s run was a milestone achievement for me.

You see, almost three years ago I had started training for my third half-marathon but just few days before I was all set to run, in March 2020, the race had to be canceled due to the pandemic. That discouraged me so much that I even stopped working out for a long time.

Then when I did try to pick up running again, it was always an on-again off-again uphill battle for me and I never found my groove. Literally. So then I picked up speed walking (thanks to a wonderful walking buddy in my neighborhood who has now become a very dear fried). While walking was great, I still missed running.

Then I also started having health issues which led to a major surgery few months ago. And after the long recovery period, my body just did not feel the same. I began walking but running was still elusive. Then for most of the summer I barely even went out to do any sort of activity because of the heat waves we were having.

But today was a surprise gift that I thoroughly enjoyed and for the first time in a long time I feel a glimmer of hope that I can enjoy running once more. I will take it.

Strength renewed…

One of the most awesome things about running is that I love being in my own thoughts as I take in my surroundings. And I did just that today. Even as I was running and surprising myself, I was reminded of one of my favorite biblical verses that speaks of putting one’s hope in the Lord Almighty and being renewed in strength. Such renewal can cause one to soar on wings like eagles, run and not grow weary, and walk and not be faint (Isaiah 40:31).

And I believe this is exactly what I was experiencing today. The last several days I had been on a journey of intentionally spending more time in the morning in prayer and committing all my hope and confidence in Him. This included yielding the frailties of my aging body into His care.

And He in turn was renewing my strength indeed. How else could I run for 45-60 minutes and not grow weary? In fact, I am sure I could have gone for longer but it was my own sense of caution that made me turn back. Furthermore, throughout the rest of the day I was able to still keep up with all the demands of the day including some more running around to capture my son’s running on film. And now at the end of the day, I am still feeling great.

What’s next…

Now that I have re-discovered my passion and joy in running, I am so excited that I am tempted to find the next race to sign up for and use that as a motivational goal to keep going. But is that what I should do? Probably not.

I think I need to take it one step at a time as I ease myself into more of a running routine. And maybe I just need to ditch the measurements altogether and just run for the joy of it.

Yes, I think that is what I will do.