- I run for my health. I was always an active kid, but I quickly found that when life got busy with work, it was easy to forget to exercise. I don't ever want my health to be jeopardized because I'm too lazy to get out and run.
- I run for no excuses. I spend years coming up with excuses for why I could never run a 5K, and forget a half-marathon. Excuses like, I can only run if I'm playing a sport, I had asthma when I was in high school and college, I'm too out of shape to even start running, or I'm too old to start running. Then I had a friend tell me that I should run a half-marathon, actually she told me that I could run a half-marathon. So I started to run, and pretty soon all those excuses started to fade away.
- I run for the challenge. There are plenty of situations in life when we need to recognize that there are areas of our life that need improvement. I challenge my players to improve and challenge themselves to get better. This summer at a conference the students were challenged to go from good to excellent. If I am going to be a good coach, teacher, and leader, I need to make sure that I am also challenging myself to stretch my comfort zone and go from good to excellent. One of the ways I am challenging myself is to run.
- I run for my parents. A little over a year ago, when I started getting ready for my first half-marathon, I realized my 60+ year old father was in better shape than me. Of course, people would say "your dad is just unique, he is in better shape than a lot of people" and that worked as an excuse for a while. I'm glad my dad is in such great shape, he can get out and enjoy a day running around Kennywood with his grandkids and then spend a day replacing a roof with his sons the next day. However, the fact that my dad is in better shape than many people his age should not be an excuse for him to be in better shape than me. I can say my dad has not beat me in a 5K yet, and my goal is to make sure that doesn't happen. My mom has not always been super active. She walked around the block when we were kids, but she always said she wouldn't run. Well, a few weeks ago she came in 2nd in her age group at a 5K, because she ran part of it. I would hope that in 30 years I can place in a 5K.
Those are just 3 reasons, there are more, but they are about as boring as running on a treadmill. I know not everyone loves to run, I don't really LOVE it either, but I do it, and I am always happy that I did.
I hope you are finding ways to challenge yourself to improve and have a better day!
Keep it real friends,
HP
