My Running Journey

From high school graduation to running my first half-marathon

The hardest part is starting. Once you get that out of the way, you’ll find the rest of the journey much easier.

Simon Sinek

I never really enjoyed running. I was a big kid who was always finishing last or near the back of the group. I played basketball, football, and tennis, but I saw running as a punishment. Once I was out of high school, I gained even more weight and was in the worst shape of my life. I went for a physical and weighed 246 lbs. I had every excuse in the book, such as genetics were the reason I was overweight, losing weight was impossible, and that it could be worse. However, I was very unhappy with myself and didn’t like what I saw in the mirror. I decided to make a significant change.

I started dieting and walking my dog twice a day around my neighborhood. I restricted my caloric intake to unhealthy levels though, with barely 1,000 calories a day. I lost 120 lbs. in a little under a year and went from overweight to underweight, going from one extreme to another. I was so scared that I would gain all of the weight back that I was almost neurotic about what I was eating.

I wanted to gain healthy weight and had decided that running might be able to help me. Running was not easy for me to begin with, as I could barely go 2 miles and was huffing while running and my legs felt like rubber. This was an eye-opener since I incorrectly thought that I was in good shape. However, I was feeling amazing every time I was finished, with an overwhelming sense of accomplishment. Each run I was able to go a little further and eventually I was going double digit miles. The negative thing about this is I went to another extreme. I was running double digit miles every day with the occasional day off maybe once every two weeks. I started feeling pain in my knee but ignored it, which led to a stress fracture. This had happened three weeks before my half marathon and I thought if I rested it until then, I would be fine. It was stupid and I should have just withdrawn from the race. I ran it and my knee started killing me by mile 8. I pushed through and finished, but couldn’t walk for two days after. This taught me moderation and I have been running smarter since.

Running has given me more joy in life than I have had in a long time. It has taught me how far I can push my body, how strong I can make my mind, and how to run my own race at my own pace. It took me far too long to discover running in life, but I intend to keep it in my life for as long as I can.  

Getting My Endurance Back

Almost all accidents and injuries happen when an individual is not being present and not paying attention to what they are doing.

Tobe Hanson

Since my return from injury, I can run my base of 7 miles without much issue. However, going beyond that has become difficult, as my legs begin to feel weak and I start to feel phantom pains. I have managed to go 10.5 miles once and haven’t passed 9 miles since. I think that the reason that I am struggling is the lack of a race to train for and my fear of re-injury. I have a half marathon in April, but do not have a time goal for it and have too much time in the interim. I have found that I need a deadline to do my best work, which means that I have been looking for races before April to get my training back on track. The fear of re-injury is something that is more difficult to deal with. Every little thing has me doing a double-take, because it would mean a significant amount of time off from running.

Using my previous experience of coming back from injury is a help. In the summer/fall of 2018 I was running with a stress fracture in my knee. I had kept running through the injury until I couldn’t run more than a few miles without having to stop and call for a ride. I thought that I could rest it for a couple weeks and run my first half marathon, which was an awful idea. I ran the race and had to stop multiple times trying to loosen it out. I finished the race, but literally couldn’t walk for the next two days. I took another two weeks off and then tried again, which was even worse than before. I could only make it around a mile and a half before having to stop. It led to a doctors visit and two and a half months off of running.

Returning from this injury was annoying, but when I was able to run again I got my endurance back relatively quickly. I was able to start running again in December, and by January I was able to run around 10 miles without stopping. Now the current injury is passed, and I have been running again since around November, but my legs have been feeling heavy and tired often. I am unsure of what to do to counter this, and it is really demoralizing. I have good runs and each of my 7ish mile runs is usually right in my goal pace, but after that distance I start to slow and my legs start to give.

I think that I will have to cross-train more diligently and find some better podcasts to push me further. One thing that has helped is my new shoes, my Brooks Launch 7’s. I feel a lot faster in them and the times have reflected it. If anyone else has ever dealt with this issue, let me know what helps!