How do you spend the majority of your day?
Sitting in class?
Watching TV? Staring at a computer screen in a cubicle? Do you spend more time
brushing your teeth than exercising? Is the most you see the outdoors the walk
from your car to the door of your home or workplace? One last and more serious
question: How do you think this is affecting your health?
When I was 11-years-old, a friend of mine convinced me to join our middle school’s cross country team. At first I ran because my friends did, but later I developed an interest. I never came in first, or even tenth, I rarely won a medal that wasn’t merely for participation, my name was never in the sports section of the local newspaper, I hated going to practice every evening, and I certainly wasn’t a star athlete. But running did something for me. Every Saturday morning, instead of sleeping in, I’d put on my hideous uniform, pack my bag full of granola bars, water, and fruit, and drive nearly an hour away just to cross the finish line in the rear of the pack. I had to talk myself through every single race. You can do this, I told myself, one more hill, pick up the pace, pass that girl, only one more mile. I hated every single minute of those races: beforehand, when my friend (who was actually very good) received a personal pep talk from the coach, during, when I was always three strides behind the same girl, and after, when awards were being handed out and I was still just trying to catch my breath. Yet every single evening I went to practice, and every weekend my scrawny legs somehow carried me over three miles of hills.
So why did I do it? To be honest, I have no idea. Fall after Fall I showed up at the local park for conditioning, never understanding why. One by one, my friends all left. Except for the one I was constantly compared to, that was more amazing that I could ever hope to be. It wasn’t until my senior year, seven years later, that I finally appreciated all the sport did for me. That same friend had a stress fracture and was in a boot. The regional meet came up, and she wasn’t going to run until our rival team discovered that, without her, there wouldn’t be enough girls competing for them to place. She surprised us all when she decided to tough it out, over three miles in the rain. But I surprised myself that day. I crossed the finish line nearly eight minutes faster than usual, and about ten minutes ahead of her. When I saw her heading through the chute, I met her at the beginning and ran the 200 meters to the finish by her side. I still didn’t win a medal— the most I got was high-fives and pats on the back from my teammates and coach—but I learned that I wouldn’t be me without having run three miles every Saturday, not including practices, for a quarter of a year for nine years. Now, I know what it means to persevere through the most difficult of situations and how to manage my time efficiently. I eat healthy and exercise at least three times a week. And most of all, I am in the (slow) process of training for bigger races, with the hopes of completing a marathon someday. Looking back on all that time I thought I was wasting in “misery,” I am truly thankful that I stuck it out.
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| The team before the Regional race in 2009 |
I live for the mornings when I can lace up my neon-pink
shoes and hit the pavement, but what does that mean to you? Get out there! I
dare you to run a lap around the nearest high school’s track, or for ten
minutes on a treadmill, or even just one mile. You will hate it, every second
of it, especially if you’ve never run before. But when you finish, and you see
that you’ve reached your simplest goal, you'll see what running can do. You’ll
eat healthier, even if just to assure your run wasn’t in vain. You’ll feel more
awake, more focused. Your legs will become stronger, your arms more toned, your
lungs fuller, your heart more efficient. All you have to do is run for thirty
minutes, three times a week— time that you would’ve spent in front of the TV or
computer anyway.
Think you can't?
“The Legend of
Cliff Young: The 61-year-old Farmer who Won the World’s Toughest Race.”
Elitefeet.com. 30 Dec. 2007. Web. Elitefeet.com. 29 Aug. 2012.
Reilly, Rick.
“Worth the Wait.” 20 Oct. 2003. Sports Illustrated 99:16. Web.
Sportsillustrated.cnn.com. 29 Aug. 2012.
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