It really is amazing how much writing down your goals and letting the world know those goals keeps us on track! I woke up this morning. I KNEW that I had told the world that I was going to run on Tuesday morning. Drat.....it was Tuesday morning. I wanted to skip it! I wanted to skip it soooo bad! But I knew that I had told the world so I crawled out of bed to go out for my run. Peer pressure really does work I guess!
Immediately I ran into an issue. Literally! I was walking and rammed my toe into my stair stepper exerciser. OUCHY! It hurt and I will admit that I had a momentary thought of skipping my run because my toe HURT. I didn't though. I've had a horrible run of bad luck with running and injuries. Every time I try to step back into running it seems as if something happens. Pneumonia, sprained ankle, snow storms, blisters, demon flu......yeah, it's been crazy. I wasn't letting a little toe pain stop me today. Off I went.
Some days when I run I have some amazingly deep thoughts. Today was one of those days. The last few days or so (maybe weeks) I've ran across a few different blogs where the author is writing about running. (yeah, I can't remember which blogs right off the top of my head...sorry! If I had known I was going to have an epiphany I would have made a list of whose blogs so I could tag!) In all of these the post has some mention the fact that it doesn't matter your speed....or how you look. If at any point both of your feet are off of the ground, then you are running. It doesn't matter how slowly or how fast. It's running. Not wogging. Not anything other than running. These blog posts came back to me while I was running this morning.
I have long put myself down for my slow running speed. I hesitate to call myself a runner...because I'm SLOOOOW. Today it hit me....why yes, at one point in each stride, both of my feet ARE off of the ground. I am therefore running. I tried to down play my efforts...but today I realized that what I'm out there doing is EXACTLY perfect. It is exactly perfect for where I am in my life. Would I like to be faster? Of course! But where I am at right now with my running is absolutely perfect for me....right now.
So this morning, I had a perfectly imperfect run.
My lips were chapped and dry the whole time! Perfectly imperfect! (Although I have a date tonight with Jason....I'm laying on the Chapstick heavy so my lips are 'kissable'. Hahaha.)
I did hurt my toe before the run. Why yes, it did throb while I ran. But it was perfectly imperfect!!
My nose ran like a faucet on my run. Perfectly imperfect!
I ran slow.....and why yes, I did walk for a few minutes smack dab in the middle of my run today. Perfect imperfect!
It may have been an imperfect run......but it was PERFECT for me today...right now...where I am at today!