Running

“I walked to the trail at the nearby park, and once out of view of traffic, I started running. It felt great. I felt like a greyhound that was let loose out of a cage. I think my tongue was even hanging out of the side of my mouth! I was not able to catch my breath, so I slowed down to walk. I repeated this sad performance a few more times, and completed an impressive total of 7ish kilometres on my very first outdoor run. It was the best feeling I’ve ever had.”

“My first run was horrendous. Physically I felt as if I was about to die at any moment, and emotionally I was thinking "why are you doing this", "its ok if you stop and call someone to come pick you up", etc stuff like that. Judging by how my first (and second, and third) runs went, I really don't know why I found it in me to ever run again.”

“I started with running short distances. I would walk to a certain point, then run for a portion, and then walk it out to finish. I slowly expanded my running distance over time, all while paying very little attention to my time. I decided my focus would be on trying to run this half-marathon without walking, no matter how long it took me. Since July, I’ve run over 200 miles, and I can honestly say I love it. I look forward to going out on runs, and I feel better than I’ve felt in years.”