How I Became a Runner - Part One

I became a runner to become sane once again. I stayed a runner to continue being sane.

Two years ago, I was working in a hotel and the work was going to kill me. I was working with brides all the time, juggling 30 events a month, working 60-70 hours a week, eating lunch out every day, and not receiving half the support that one needs working in a high stress job like that. I had joined a gym and was never even able to go half the time because I had to show a bride the hotel or meet with her to do a tasting.

I had decided to run my first half-marathon in Napa Valley this summer. I changed my schedule to be Tuesday - Saturday, but I would end up working 15 hour days on Saturdays and trying to play catch up every Tuesday. How I enjoyed Monday mornings when I would get up to run my long runs. I shut my mind off, turned my ipod on, and went on this fantastic trail run. Sometimes I would be fueled by stress and my runs would be sluggish and unproductive. Plus I was a heifer (still am, but whatever) so I had to run slow and alternate between walking and running. Other times I would be fueled by anger, mostly at myself for staying at this job where I was unhealthy.

Three weeks before my half-marathon, I was diagnosed with Lyme Disease. Not that I was going to die, but honestly, it made me realize that first, I had to stop running in the woods (not) and second, that I really needed to change my lifestyle - come August, I was looking for something else. I was just getting off antibiotics when I completed my first half. Granted I had to walk almost the entire thing, but I finished it. And it felt great.

In August, I did it. I left the job and the life that was stressing me out and putting my health in danger (okay, so that is a little melodramatic, but it would have happened anyway) and decided that I would focus on my health in the year of 2009. This meant mental, physical, and emotional health.