I ran in high school ( 20 years ago!! ) on the cross country & track teams & always loved it. Continued to run for a short time after graduation but eventually moved on to other things, like working 60-80 hour weeks for low pay ! A couple years later I had my 1st child, started nursing school, & continued on with my life. I joined a gym but was never interested in using the treadmill, still don't understand why anyone wants to run on one when they could be outside enjoying nature. Started sporadically doing light jogs over the past few years while pushing my daughters in the jogging stroller as part of my general workouts, only doing 1-1.5 miles. Then in early 2007 my alcoholic husband relapsed & we separated. By June I felt like I was losing my mind to the stress & one evening strapped on my sneakers, asked my son to watch my daughters, put on my i-pod, & took off running. I can not even describe how good that felt & how much it centered my mind. I was instantly re-connected to how much I enjoyed it 20 years ago. I now run regularly, it is meditative for me & almost spiritual, although that's probably the endorphins kicking in!! I usually run 4-5 miles 1-2 times a week with plans to start increasing when my 4 year old starts pre-school in September & I have more alone time. My goal is to run the Cape Cod marathon in October 2009 but for now I'm just excited to see how stepping up the mileage is going to treat me!!

Similiar to those before me, I want to be healthy and strong for my family and self.

all of my friends love how this story goes for me because it could've been altered if i made the soccer team freshman year. freshman year i tried out for jv soccer but got cut so i just did xc to give me something to do. ever since then, my running has greatly improved and now i have college coaches trying to recruit me. i love this sport so much. im going to continue running until i physically cannot do so, which i hope never happens =P

Wow...why did I start running... Ever since I was a kid I remember always feeling like I just wasn't good enough. Always felt like people looked @ me and thought "well who are you?" nobody! My mother's side of the family always (and still do) adored my brother, he was and is everything to them. I would always be standing somewhere on the "side lines" just watching him get all the attention!!(and still do)!!! He was good at everything he did...baseball football, wrestling< and they all made it to every one of his games and matches and cheered him on!!!!!!!!!! I played softball, and was ok, then in highschool became a cheerleader which I was good at, even though they didn't come to watch me!!!! Our squad even made it to nationals!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then during cheerleading i injured my knee really bad, and couldn't attend cheerleading tryouts the following year(junior yr) of highschool....So my junior year I was not in any sport!!! It killed me! Finally came time for my senior year and cheerleading tryouts again, and the coach denied me a spot, telling me she wouldn't put me on the squad since the year before I was injured and couldn't try out!! She said I didn't  show I wanted it bad enought to try out through all the pain with my knee, even though I couldn't put an ounce of weight on my leg without my knee completely giving out and being in excruciating pain!!!! I felt worthless yet again... then someone had mentioned to me about track and field> And I thought, hey why not? Though it was fairly new to me ,except for the casual 2 mile summer evening runs my dad and I would take together when I was younger, I really didn't know a whole lot about the sport. I didn't know if I should be going out for track or distance running. When I asked the track coach what I should do, she wasn't" very helpful and just said, pick one and stick with it. Since I only knew one person on the entire team I chose to do what she did, which was track, the 100 and 200 meters!!! wow, was that a mistake...I was definitely not a speed runner, and literally sucked at it!!! But I stuck with it to finish out the season. During practices I loved running distances, which were our warmups. so after I graduated I stuck with the running, just not real fast. I ran to run far not fast!! I remember everytime I'd run I always felt sooo good... you know like no one can touch me out here, no one can make me feel not good enough!!! I felt good enough running< and I was good at it! Then a few years later after my first daughter and my first marriage, my husband always put me down whenever I would go out  to run< wanted to know why I was doing it, who was I doing it for. And just about everytime he would end up following me in his car, just to make sure I was alone!!! Then one day at work I suffered a bad neck injury, and my running ended for almost 9 years!!! I dealt with the effects of pain medications, depression and a whopping 50-60 lb weight gain!! Needless to say I only stayed married to that jerk for 2 yrs. The divorce just made me feel like even more of a loser< even though I knew it was a very bad environment for my young daughter and myself!! So here I am 9 yrs after my injury, and I have been married to my highschool sweetheart for 4 yrs now, and he has been such a great support for me. We have four children, he has 2 from a previous marriage, then my daughter, along with a beautiful 1 1/2 yr old that we share together!! This past May my husband got me a treadmill, and I have been running ever since. Of course some family members tried to chime in about how bad running is for me, like they know what they're talking about!!!! I guess just one last attempt to try and make me feel like I can't or shouldn't be doing it!!! WHATEVER!!!! I am doing it, and I LOVE doing it!!!! Running makes me feel alive!!!!! Everysingle morning I run, I feel untouchable! I still am not very fast at running, but I have been gradually increasing my distance from month to month. In may I started running/walking for twenty minutes. By mid june I was solely running 1-2 miles a day. July I was running 2 miles a day up until a week ago...Now I run 3 miles four days a weeks and 4 miles the other three days. It gives me such a great feeling of accomplishment!! I do it for me, and it makes me feel good!! My goal for myself is to continue running and adding mileage, along with some speed I hope, so I can start running 5k's-10k's and eventually a half!!! Then I hope at least some of my family will come and watch me, and maybe even say to themselves, 'hey she really can do it!" 

So, why I do it...I DO IT FOR ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  

Good question. I hated running ever since I ran track as a freshman in high school — in basketball shoes (we couldn't afford another pair of shoes). Yet, in order to be in shape for basketball, I would run to keep from dying on the court. That continued through college and into my years playing in "city leagues." Along the way, though, my grandfather had multiple heart attacks and strokes and my father had open heart surgery at age 42. So, after college, I began to look more seriously into "heart health"  (because my family heritage/genetics scared me). Someone mentioned to me that there were actually races runners could do in the area (What? Who'd ever want to RACE three WHOLE miles? I wondered). But finally, I thought I would check it out and see what I could do. Wow. What a difference running WITH people was. Running was so much more social than I had imagined. It was so great to talk to people before and after the race...and then I started making running friends. But I could never EVER imagine racing a 10K (TWICE as far? I DON'T THINK SO!!)...and then I could never imagine racing a 15K...and then I could never imagine racing a half-marathon, 25K or marathon. Yeah, even though the races add a whole great level of fun, what happened along the way is I discovered I had a gift and I was going to use it (and enjoyed it). No, "gift" can't be interpreted as I turned into an elite runner (far from it), but I COULD run...and look around..., there are millions (billions?) of people who can't even run a mile (or even down their street)...running is a gift to be used, enjoyed, experienced and shared. Anyway, the bottom line is I run because I enjoy it, I run because it keeps me alive (not just for me, but for my family) and I run because it's a friendship factor in my life.

P.S. By the way, I could never, EVER imagine running an ULTRA-Marathon...that's just nuts!  

I totally agree with you, but for me i was walking for years, the reason: to loose the weight after each of my pregnacy and i have 5 children. i just started to run, i love it

i did the half marathon that was my first race and i did the human race just this last sunday

i am not such a prof runner really not for me running is such a challenge i finished the half marathon in central park on july 27 08 in 2:35 and the 10K human race in 1:08 but the last race was very hard b/c no room for running too many people and the ground i was not used to run in such condition.

So i go online and try to get support from other runners b/c not easy to keep up.

good luck and  good for you  

angel770> Thanks for your response and support, it means alot!!:)

quoteP.S. By the way, I could never, EVER imagine running an ULTRA-Marathon...that's just nuts!  [/quote]

You made me laugh out loud and well up with tears of emotion at the same time! You are such an inspiration to me!

I just started running on Sunday.  Actually, the story is a bit longer than that, but I'm actually not a runner yet. (this story will be more about swimming.) See, I always thought I sucked at running. In middle school, when we tried out for the Presidential Fitness Awards, I could have gotten one except for running. I could do 100 situps without effort, I almost broke the school record in "girl" pullups, etc. But I was a turtle running. It wasn't even really running, it was more like "falling forward". I landed hard, my feet made slapping noises, my chest jiggled, and my sides hurt. It was just so embarrassing. I loved swimming and biking (and volleyball) so I focused on those, and avoided running. At 16 I earned my lifeguard certificate. Swimming a mile was just a warmup for me.

Fast forward ... got married, gave up biking and swimming for lack of time. Ripped up my knee in a ski accident. Gained weight. Had a child, gained more weight. Divorced ... back to school ... no time for exercise. Got a job.

Then I met a wonderful man online, and "love" got me motivated to work on myself again. I started swimming, worked back up to a mile. Snuck in exercise at work: every time I'd go into the darkroom to develop film, I'd do ten leglifts, ten situps, ten crouches, whatever. Started eating veggie subs at Subway for dinner every day. The weight melted off me. Then we broke up. I got a new (stressful) job, met a new (stressful) man, and gained 50 lbs in six months. I started training for the Jamba Juice mini tri in Nov 2000 -- I figured with my love of swimming and biking, I could get 2/3 of the race done, and who cared if I had to walk the final leg, I just wanted to finish -- but then I found out I'd have to work a trade show the weekend of the tri (9/11/2001!) and gave up training. Then I married the stressful man. I've been a slug ever since. He's totally sedentary and values food and sleep over exercise. Stress from emotional abuse and the sedentary lifestyle started building up a lot of fat in my belly. My health really started to deteriorate.

I've tried incorporating lifestyle changes to include more walking, but it hasn't been enough. Last year I developed plantar fasciitis in both feet. At 42 years old, I feel twenty years older. I'm SICK OF IT!! So I've decided to make drastic changes. I separated from my husband. I looked up my old boyfriend, and found out he's done mini tri's in the past and wants to run his first marathon. I arranged to run my first mini-tri with him next June. We aren't together now, but I love knowing that I have a goal to work towards and a buddy to join me. And I decided to actually work on the running part of the tri, not being satisfied with "just finishing", but actually running it. Last weekend I walked a 5K run/walk for charity, and I was a bit envious of the runners who finished the course in 20 minutes while it took me an hour. I'm a bit impatient.

So I pulled up the Coolrunning.com Couch-to-5K program and started that on Sunday. I also bought a book that really focuses on the FORM of running, so that I can learn to run more efficiently and not feel like I'm always just falling and catching myself. I set up my iPod with songs that are timed just right for the C25K program ... when the song changes, I switch it up. Sunday's run/walk was actually quite easy. I can't wait to get out there today!

I'm still biking -- did a 25K for charity in June -- and I'm looking for a place to swim. But now I feel encouraged to work on my running enough to actually want to do a mini marathon. I want to be healthier, I want to lose weight, and I want to know what that Runners High feels like!