Stop Stopping

Run #2 had a simple goal: 30 minutes without stopping for a walk break. I brought a stopwatch, but not my Garmin. Which meant I could track my time but not my pace. I set off to explore the community. I wandered here, wandered there, ran around a park, ran around it again. Ran around the community and somehow found myself at the same park again, so ran it a third time. It wasn’t a riveting run. It wasn’t a strenuous run. It was just a run. I can’t remember the last time I’ve run 30 minutes non-stop! I know my pace slowed as my lack of fitness took over. I’m sure if I had tracked my distance I would shake my head in self-disdain at my slowness. But that’s all negative self- talk. On the positive side; I ran for 30 minutes. Even when I got tired, even when I got bored, even when I wanted to stop. I ran. For that I would like to thank all my amazingly fit Facebook friends. After seeing so many goals achieved and races run, I was starting to feel that I was missing out on life and just reading it through other people’s lives. I kept seeing pics of people going for a bike ride and thought, “I’d like to do that.” And others showing off their hard-earned finishers medals and thought “I’d like to do that, too.” And then I thought, “well, why aren’t I doing that? What’s stopping me?” The answer was simple: me. I was stopping myself. So now it’s time to stop stopping myself. Easier said than done.