To be clear, it is a recent activity for me, I played some soccer and baseball in high school and mostly kept in shape over the years with various other activities like racquetball and tennis. But I was never a long distance runner.

A few years ago there were a few friends who were doing some fitness group runs and invited me to come along. These were just a mile or two nothing too crazy. I enjoyed it and decided to try and do an actual organized race. I did some training runs with this group as well as some runs on my own then ran in my first 10k. I had a great time and decided to try another race a few months later. Eventually I set a goal to run my first Marathon.

Running was never something I did that occupied a lot of my time. I went for short 3-5 mile runs once maybe twice a week. Not really a very regimented training routine. I entered more fundraising 5k and 10k races throughout the year and enjoy the community of them. Eventually I built up enough endurance and I entered and ran my first half marathon. I remember barely being able to finish and if you had asked me at the finish line if I would do one again I would have answered hell no.

However… recovery does amazing things and I found the experience so enjoyable I set my mind and body to actually train and do my original goal of running a full marathon. When I say train, I don’t mean with an actual trainer or even a structured running scheduled. I just tried to gradually build up my weekly miles till I was able to run closer to the full 26.2 miles.

The big day came and Mother Nature decided that the long distance wasn’t challenging enough for me, she decided to add a very cold windy downpour to the equation. I ran on and managed to complete the distance just under the 6 hour cut off but, I did finish. It was miserable and I can’t believe how sore I was. It was however a goal that I set for myself and that I completed it.

I run now for physical and mental health and still run many fundraising 5k and 10k through the year. I also run that same marathon but only the half now. My life, health and calendar has limited even my regular runs lately. Yesterday, I still showed up and ran that same half marathon. I had it in my head that I could complete it but that my time would be very slow. I was pleasantly surprised by my result and it genuinely brought such a smile to my face. It wasn’t close to my personal best but it was so much faster than what I thought I would do.

It is funny sometimes what our brains will tell us about expectations that sometimes our bodies will exceed. And yes, I know it can happen the opposite way as well. Yesterday however, my body thumbed it’s virtual nose at my brain and had a great day.