Why I Run.

So, in my first ever blog post I mentioned that I love running. But...why is it that I love something that tends to be heavily disliked by most people? Well, it’s a bit of a long story so pour yourself a cup of your beverage of choice because we’re in it for the long haul.

Let me start off by saying I f*cking HATED running when I first started.

Rewind to two years years ago which is when I started exercising. At the time I was sitting at a husky 252 pounds and after getting so depressed and angry about how I looked and felt, I decided it was about time to get off my lazy ass and actually do something about it.

I bought myself the cheapest gym membership I could find (Hey Youfit what's good? You should sponsor the podcast!) and got to work not knowing a single damn thing about running, lifting weights, or really doing  anything active whatsoever. I could barely keep anything above a light jog for longer than 2 minutes before running out of breath and I was just happy being able to curl a 20 pound dumbbell. 

Fast forward a few months and lo and behold I’m losing weight! Holy shit! This exercise thing really seems to work. Fast forward another few months and I’m sitting right around 175 pounds and just ran my first ever half marathon. Mind blowing right? Just eight months prior I was drastically overweight hating how I looked and felt and now I’m down 75 pounds and just completed my first half marathon Not only did I finish, but I came in 18th out of the 300 other guys in my bracket! Not too shabby huh?).

First marathon completed & 18th out of 300.

Now bare in mind at this point I was only tolerating running. It was a means to an end. I lost the weight I set out to lose and I completed my ridiculous stretch goal of losing 50 pounds in a year by an insane margin. 

But I still didn’t love running. At least not until I came to a very important realization so let’s change gears here for a second.

I struggle with depression, anxiety, and overthinking things that I really have no business thinking about. Heaps of fun let me tell ya. Now, I’m not gonna say the whole runners high saved me and helped me find joy in this cold bleak world and now everything’s great that’s bullshit that only happens in the movies. (sorry to break it to ya) I’ve come to the realization that  the longer runs I take, which are usually around 6-10 miles, are the only times where I’m able to finally clear my head of just continuously thinking about everything troubling and bothering me. For at least those two or so hours, I just move. I focus on my breathing. I focus on just moving one foot in front of the other, and I can temporarily let go of the struggles that make it hard for me to get out of bed every single morning.

To me running is a mental detox, it just sweats out all the negativity and anger I find myself feeling, at least for that day.

 And that is why I run.