Oh Hello There
Years. It’s been years since I’ve written on this blog. Today while I was trying to remember a poem I wrote about running shoes, I thought I’d come back to this site to see if I could find it. I didn’t, but what I found instead were hundreds of memories that I had totally forgotten about. I spent the next hour reading my old posts, thinking I would be mortified by my writing. But no. I actually liked my writing, not all of it but some of it. I had good thoughts, inspiring messages, and there was meaning in my words. So I immediately felt compelled to get back on here, to write again, to find those inspiring messages in the day to day life of a runner. That young 30 year old had things to say, and ten years later, she still does.
Where has life taken me over the past 10 years? To so many places, along with so many adventures. But to get to the point, I still run. I still live in Raleigh. And I now have two amazing daughters who are 5 (6 in one week) and 8 years old. Life has been good to me and sometimes I wonder what I did in a previous life to deserve all that I have now. As far as running goes, I’m in a place I never thought possible. At 40 years old, I am faster and stronger than ever before. I’ve broken 3 hours in the marathon, ran a 1:22:14 half, hope to break 18 minutes in the 5K this summer and plan to stay very far away from 10Ks (it’s just like the 5K pain, but twice as long – no thank you). When I started this blog over 10 years ago, I had an up and down relationship with running. I’d run. Overdo it. Get injured. Be an angry person. Get better and do it all over again. There was no consistency in my training and I always felt like an injury was just one run away. I didn’t know where running fit into my life, but that is now a very different story.
For as long as I’ve been running, I always knew I loved it, but couldn’t quite pinpoint the reason. If I’m being honest with myself, I’d say at first it was because I felt like it allowed me to drink all the beer and eat all the pizza while staying somewhat the same size. I’m 40 now. I have kids, responsibilities, and prefer sleep over late nights. But I’ve always come back to my running shoes- after my hip surgery, after kids, after COVID, after a long day – whatever was happening in the outside world, running was my safe place. Maybe at first it was about the pizza and beer but now it’s my lifeline.
I run because I can. I run because I think best while in motion. My 5am alarm goes off every morning because a beautiful sunrise is never the same as the day before. My need to push through the pain of race day comes from a knowing that life is suffering, it’s just a matter of choosing the type of suffering you prefer- the pain of the endeavor or the pain of knowing you never tried. For me, running is life in motion and by choosing to lace up (almost) every day, I am choosing how to navigate the ups and downs of it all. It’s not always fun. In fact, it’s probably not fun more than it is fun. But sometimes we just do things. And today and every other day I’m able, I choose running.
Happy Running,
Tracie
Run Inspired. 