Motivation

Over the past two days I've run 17.5 miles.

On Sunday, after attending a semi-Halloween party and drinking two beers and a glass of wine and grazing on the buffet table I got up and met some running friends for 6 miles. I ran to and from our meeting place for a total of 9 miles. Thankfully my running friends were also at the party so we were all pretty much in the same place in terms of running. That is, none of us wanted to push the pace that much.

It was a good run and it went by fast. When I left the house Sunday morning I was running a little late so I booked it the 1.5 miles to our meeting spot. Sadly, I have no idea how fast I was going because my Garmin battery was dead. Oh well.

It was also the first time I'd run in almost a week. Like I said in my last post, I was super busy most of last week and by the time I wasn't I just wasn't in the mood to run. I'm really glad my running buddy said something at the party the night before otherwise I may have just gone a whole week without running. I fear I'm becoming someone who only wants to run with other people. There's not anything wrong with that, it just means that my motivation to just lace up my shoes and go apparently got up and went.

Except for last night. My husband and I made a rather difficult decision to rehome our greyhound and the magnitude of the situation just hit me in the gut as I left work. From putting out feelers to rehoming took less than 5 hours and for various reasons I didn't want to be around for most of it. He ended up going back to the family we originally got him from. I hope they cherish their second chance with him.

Anyway, as soon as I got home I changed into my running gear and took off for my Monday night run. I ran to the meeting spot and even though my Garmin says I was only going a 10 minute pace I felt like I was going much faster. All I could think about was running and not stopping. I was looking forward to seeing the usual group of runners so of course I did stop at the store where we meet. I ran 5.5 miles with them and then ran the 1.5 miles home for a total of 8.5 miles.

When I got back to my neighborhood I didn't want to go home. If it hadn't been so dark and cold and if my husband hadn't had dinner ready for me I probably would have kept going. So what if my knee was a little achy? So what if my hip flexors were sore? I just slowed way down and those things went away.

I've never really been one of those people who thinks of running as an escape but last night it was. It was both scary and exhilarating.

There are so many reasons to run. For a long time I did it just as a personal challenge. Maybe it's because I've now gone the 26.2 miles of the marathon and need other motivators that this week I found two more: running as socializing and running as an escape. I'm sure I'll discover even more in the future.

Why do you run/walk/exercise?