I’m getting back into running again. It’s been a while; I barely did any exercise over the Christmas break… Actually, I may as well be honest and say I barely did anything resembling exercise for all of December. I’m sure I’m not the only one…
So, early (well, early-ish) on the first Sunday of this year, I ran around Victoria Park for the first time in over a month. I started off at a fairly reasonable pace and to begin with, it was fun. Then, after a relatively short time (ok, about five minutes), I got tired, I started to think about how slow I was going, how unfit I had become, and how long it was going to take me to get all the way around the park. That unhelpful voice in my head was loud and clear – I wouldn’t be able to do it. So I gave up.
No, I’m joking. I don’t give up that easily. I just kept going. I didn’t have any music to focus on, so I just told myself, over and over, ‘just a little further, just a little further, just a little further…’ I got into a rhythm and started to enjoy it. The frost on the ground, the cold wind on my face, as I started to run faster, feeling my muscles tightening as I ran, all of that. By the time I got back to where I’d started, I didn’t want to stop!
Sometimes I run in the gym, but I always prefer to be outside when I can, and since that first run, I have been going at least twice a week. I still can’t run that much further, or that much faster… yet… But for me, that’s not the point. It’s not about how fast I can run, or how quickly I can get to my destination. The most important thing is just that I keep moving, and enjoy the moment while I’m in it.