This is my first blog about running. It still seems odd to me to be the one who is writing about literal running yet in other ways it is not. Though I spent most of my adolescent and adulthood almost entirely complacent and inactive physically yielding myself to a more indoor artsy way of life, my childhood actually consisted of a lot of running. In fact, I preferred running to walking even if it was to the mailbox, down the hallway in the house to my room or up the street to my best friend "Gail-Gail's" house to play for the entire day. It was a joke in "Gail-Gail's" family that you could hear me coming down the street as my bare feet slapped the pavement all the way. (Back in the day, we never wore shoes in the neighborhood especially during the carefree days of summer in Florida.) Needless to say, the bottoms of my feet were constantly a grey-blackened color.
So as I look back I remember myself as a very energetic, active and running child. In fact, I racked up a good share of blue and red ribbons from my elementary school field days. I was a flash at the 50 and 100 yard dashes. Ran and jumped like a gazelle over the hurdles and passed a mean baton in the relay race. All that changed as I hit adolescence and I developed a repulsion for sweating in the Florida humidity. Playing the piano, drawing, reading and of course sitting in front of the TV for hours like a lot of kids in my generation, began to consume my time. Then it was boys, youth group and without delay I was a young adult who never worried too much about my health, weight or longevity. Soon I was married with kids, a busy life of ministry and my frustration with wanting a perfect physique wasn't enough to motivate me to do more than one aerobics video for a few days and merely resigning myself to dusting off the collection of treadmills, health-riders and ab-machines I had once intended to use in the convenience of my home. Fortunately, a few skipped meals, a rash of sit-ups and good thoughts was enough to slim me back into my jeans in emergencies.
But then I turned 40.
I remember the day of reckoning with my need to become physically fit and how it happened. My husband and I were on a cruise and the ship photographers were ruthless. They took pictures at every juncture of our journey. To add insult to this traumatic injury they displayed all pictures in the main hall. I can't tell you how many times I took our pile of pictures and hid them under a cute family from Maine, nevertheless the next day all our pictures would be out in the open again for ship viewing. It became an insufferable experience, because with the very first picture on display I almost didn't recognize myself. Granted this was a last minute cruise and I hadn't had very much time to prepare myself. There had been no crash diets or even a fake tan and those pictures told the story of who I had been becoming all through my thirties while I wasn't looking or paying attention. I didn't know that while I was busy being a wife, mother and pastor that I was losing half my muscle mass and my metabolism had slowed to a snails pace all resulting in a spreading and sagging that freaked me out. On that five day cruise my terror turned into a steal resolve to....drum roll please....work out!
I came home, joined an all women's gym and bought my first pair of tennis shoes since elementary school, granted they were black and silver and as close to glamorous as I could get. I went three times a week to an hour long spin class and did a few machines. I saw pretty good results physically, not dramatic, but I was MOVING! The incredible thing about just getting MOVING is the empowerment it releases not just physically but mentally. When you have been immobile for a long time it not only stagnates your body, it stagnates your mind and spirit and what is worse is the fact that you don't realize it until you break free of it through MOVING! Maybe that is why children are so carefree, because they move with freedom!
And so this is where this blog begins, with the simple point of MOVING! What is important in the beginning is not where you are going to end up, but where you start and that you start! I may not have paid attention in the beginning to the consuming and burning off calorie ratio, my fuel intake of nutrition nor did I understand the technique of sculpting my shape or training for an endurance goal. I had no idea sitting on the spin bike that I would eventually ride a real one for 12 miles in my first triathlon. I also had no idea as I was huffing on the elliptical machine, barely able to do 5 minutes straight, that I would be huffing and puffing at the end of a 4 mile run in training for a half marathon. I was just MOVING and loving the feeling that it left me when I was done each workout.
For some people "running" is a lofty goal and just "moving" by a short walk is an exhilaration and that is AWESOME! Every run starts with a walk and every walk starts with MOVING from a sitting position.
So get up, and get MOVING!
