Can you hear her now? Cher singing, “If I could turn back time…If I could find a way…” and I keep thinking, I wish I could turn back time. Why did I ever stop running? What would have happened if I would have kept running as much as I used to?
When I ran my first race ever (which was a marathon) I decided I needed to take a small break from running. Well, obviously! I went straight from never running to do one of the hardest races there is, but I was hooked. Living in California the elevation was lower and felt like it was so much easier to run. I could breath and it was basically flat—so I would run forever.
I was living in a small town and you could find me constantly running around all the back streets just getting my miles in. One day, I ran from home to the gym to class and back home. It was easily over 15 miles and I just got up and did it. Running became my thing I could do to relieve stress and get away school and work life.
A marathon was clearly not for me at the time, but half marathons were everywhere: Disneyland, OC Half, Rock ‘n Roll (San Diego), etc. They were so fun and great way to keep me motivated to exercise. I would sign up for them constantly and it became a fun outlet for me. Plus, when you are running in places like these it made it easier to run too.
Then I moved to Utah and of course, running became harder because of the elevation. It took a while, but I got back into running. Signed up for Salt Lake half marathon or other local races. Of course, after a few years I was in a basketball incident and had to get knee surgery. That then stopped me from running because I was scared.
After having surgery, I could then feel the muscles in my knee. It didn’t want to have to go through that again. I was scared and didn’t ever want to get hurt again.
Life is going to throw you a lot of different twists and turns. My big issue is, I injured myself doing something I hated. I didn’t ever like basketball. But I played and got hurt. Because of that injury I stopped doing a lot of things I loved because I didn’t want to get injured again.
Basically, I was being controlled by the injury. I think, why did I let such an incident control my health? Fear overcame me and made it so that I wouldn’t continue doing what I love. It was great viewing so many different places in ways I wouldn’t otherwise because I was running rather than walking around.
Now, as a parent, I think, if my kids ever go through an experience like this, will I let them stop doing what they love because of an accident? Really, if my kids want to stop something because they get injured while doing it, but I have experienced it. I personally feel that I should have never let that affect me so much.
The moral of the story, don’t let things hold you back. I shouldn’t have stopped running and am grateful to have gotten back in the habit. I may not be able to turn back time, but looking forward I am getting my health back—and love it!
