Thursday, March 5, 2009

to me

Remember this day?


Look closely. This was your first LBI 18 mile run.

This was barely 4 months after you started distance running.

You were new.
You were naive.
You were running farther than you'd ever run before.

You ran without much knowledge.
You ran like it was so easy.

Remember this day?
When your pace was fast, but you didn't think about it...
When you sailed through the miles smiling and soaking it all in...
When you cheered on other runners around you through the race...

Look closely.
You'll see someone who didn't know about training paces or speedwork.
You'll see someone who didn't have expectations because there was nothing to measure against.
You'll see someone who marveled at and celebrated each new milestone.



Remember this day?


You ran fast.
You ran happy.
You joked at mile 10 -- only 8 to go? That's nothing!
You ran with hurting knees, but ran fast anyway.

You loved. every. step.

You ran fast.

You didn't know what you were doing, and you ran fast.
You ran less mileage, and you ran fast.
You were excited by the new adventure, and you ran fast.

Remember this day?
You need to remember this day.

8 comments:

Aimee said...

I LOVED that day!!! Very inspirational!!! Don't be so damn hard on yourself. No one ever experiences a "first" of anything again. We ALL get older, wiser, sometimes more careful, other times more reckless. We overthink things when it is no longer the first. We're aware of details we weren't aware of the FIRST time around.
But you can recapture SOME of the magic. Take a week and throw your knowledge out the window. Run less, but enjoy it more. Leave the watch and the plan at home. Take your camera with you again. Wear your old running outfits.
Run less, but enjoy it more. :)

Maggs said...

Great post! We all need to remember when we didn't care about how fast we were running, we were just happy we were running. I ran today and had an awful run, but I kept thinking that a year ago I would have be thrilled with the pace. Maybe do some runs w/o a watch so you have no idea how you are running.

Maria said...

LOVE this post!

phdatc said...

Love this Solar. Love that you reached back into your running past to bring the fun and interest back to today. We all lose perspective once in awhile... way to gain it back.

Runnin-From-The-Law said...

What your sister said! ;-)

Joe said...

I don't think I've ever seen that pic.

You look so strong...

And absolutely satisfied with what you've accomplished.

I look forward to meeting you again in a few weeks or so, and congrats on finding that mojo again :)

Charisa said...

Awesome, awesome! So so true - we need to remember what it felt like to just LOVE running and have no expectations! It's all meant to be fun!! Enjoy!

Anonymous said...

This is just what I needed to read today, and not just to give me perspective with my running! Thanks for always finding words that escape me! You rock!