Look Ma, I went running!

Every time my foot connected with the pavement, I was stomping out my doubt and fear of running. I’m no Olympic runner. Heck, just thinking about running used to make me break into hives. But there I was, taking a jog around my neighborhood. 

Along the way, a few things gave me motivation:

#1. My “DIVA Radio” pandora station had Riri and Bey yelling in my ear to keep me going. Sometimes, I felt like stopping to dutty wine but it didn’t seem appropriate so it kept me moving. I would run through the songs and take a walk break during the commercials. I thought of my run in terms of how many songs I’d be able to run though. 

#2. The cute guy at the end of the street. You know when you’re running and about to take a break, but you don’t want people to see you stopping and starting over again? Yea, I wanted to run past that cute stranger and not have to stop and lean over, wheezing in front of him. I also had stopping markers, like if you run to the playground you can stop and take a break. It gave me something to look forward to. 

#3. My lack of direction. I somehow got lost jogging around my neighborhood (I just moved in last month lol) and I was running around trying to find my way back to my house.

#4. My doctor. I had gone to the doctor to get a check up and he asked me if I exercised. I said no and he shot back “why not? You’d better start now before it gets harder to start. Your heart condition is not an excuse.” A few years ago, we discovered that there was a teeny tiny hole in my heart. Doctors were kind of mystified by it, which only served to scaring me into a sedentary lifestyle. To me, my heart was unpredictable and could let me down at any time. When my new doctor assured me that my heart would benefit from the exercise, I was free from the excuse that had driven me to inactivity.

#5. My pastor’s wife. This woman is relentless about her fitness journey. I’ve been able to track her progress on Instagram and it’s so cool to see how she wears the sweat on her brow like a badge of honor. She is consistent and she enjoys running.

Today’s run was not terrible at all. I’m hoping the next time will be as nice as this time. It was nice running by myself and thinking about life. I started thinking about all the things I thought I couldn’t do that I’m doing now. I’ve grown so much in the past couple of years after undergrad. I’m slowly eliminating the word “can’t” from my vocabulary. It doesn’t apply to me enough. God has already exceeded the expectations I had for myself. He has opened doors I didn’t even know were there and He has granted me unparalleled favor. 

I used to have a mental list of things I couldn’t do. It’s not a list of things I haven’t done yet.