Why I love to run!

Great blog! Congrats on all the running success! I, myself started running seriously 1 year ago and I can't stop! Love it!! Just like you said, can't explain why I love it except for the self satisfaction and the runner's high I get after competing in races. Keep on running!

Great description! I never realized it until I read it, but yeah, I LOVE the solitude when I'm off pounding pavement. It is my own space that no one else can intrude upon, and I need it to unwind from the normal chaos of my life (I have 4 kids... 5 if you count my husband LOL). And the runner's high? No drug can compete with that. It's a fantastic feeling. I feel powerful, strong, fast... and it doesn't matter if I was plodding along at 4.5 mph or sprinting. I feel like a rock star when I run, no matter what. And it's helped with me learning to accept my body even if it's not the "ideal" I wish I had, because it's hard to feel bad about your body when it's so incredibly functional, and I see the things I can do and I feel like, "It's alright that I don't look perfect, because I am fast, fit, strong, and can run laps around some of those so-called perfect women!" It's becoming less and less important for my body to be "decorative" if that makes sense. (It also makes me less moody, and improve my emotional well-being in general, which has helped tremendously with my depression).

I'm recovering from "runner's knee", but I'm determined to run my first race which is a 5K (I signed up for one in June, woo hoo!), and so far my time is around 35 minutes, which isn't bad, considering I am undergoing physical therapy (I broke my pelvis in a car accident a few years back, and it's caused me some issues with proper gait, which led to some minor knee pain, but it's slowly diminishing as I strengthen my muscles). My husband tried running with me once, and couldn't believe that the speed I was going at was my "physical therapy speed", and laughed that he couldn't keep up even when I'm injured LOL.

I am actually kind of bummed I didn't sign up for a 10K instead, because I think I'm naturally inclined toward running longer distances. I don't seem to experience muscle fatigue that much when I run, and I seem to have a lot of endurance for being a beginner, and I've been known to accidentally run WAY farther than I intended because I get caught up in the run, and next thing you know, my 3-4 mile run turned into 7. Whoops.

Kate, nice blog post,

I'm a little older than you ladies that have posted so far, but I know exactly how you all feel about running. I too only started just over a year ago and I'm in love. Done one 5K with my son when I was home on leave and hope to slowly work my way up to a Marathon one day.

You ladies take care of those injuries so you can keep going with the running, all that way down the road:)