As for the longer version of who I am, well, honestly, I'm just a gal who is trying to find joy through the simple things in life. I have a heart for the Lord and my Music Man Husband.
And jellybeans, homemade bread, polka dots, cardigans, old, old books, and anything fitness related
I strive to live life by taking in the grace and beauty I find, and by integrating peace into this crazy, busy, and sometimes stressful life.
That's where running comes in. It keeps me sane. It helps me breathe (on a couple of different levels) and it makes me who I am.
It's just Music Man and I for now, but we do have a greyhound, JJ, who I LOVE to watch run. He's our grumpy old man we adopted while we were living in Texas.He inspires me.
My Running Story:
I feel in love with running when I was in seventh grade and started running track. Those years taught me the importance of running with buddies, stretching, and how fun it was to get our names on the record board.
I kept running sprints in high school until I got my first job and then just sort of gave up running for the working world...
When I got to college, I realized I missed being an athlete. I needed something in my life to balance out academics and to keep me FIT! So, I went downstairs to the gym one night, hit the 5k trainer button on the treadmill, and running became my passion again.
That year I did my first half marathon, The Indianapolis Mini in 2:14. I enjoyed it so much, I followed up with it again the next year (And PR'd!)
Then, life happened for the first time. I went to Ireland for a summer to study and came back changed. I dealt with my first curve ball and my initial thought was, I need to run. It was the idea of enduring.
I went back to school and took a leap, walking onto my University's track team. I wasn't fast anymore, but I could run. I could run everyday and push myself and finish races. Running kept me going.
Then curveball two happened. I call it the hip/IT/glute/hamstring/back issue. This was three years ago and I still don't know what the issue is. But I keep running anyway, slowly, slowly dealing with it.
Then feel in love for real.The non fairy-tale version: I got married, life changed, I hit burnout HARD.
The last couple of years have been rough... lots of real life things to go through and running was there for me, but it wasn't there for me.
I was having a hard time loving it and choosing it.
I couldn't find that passion.
There's a history of depression and anxiety in my family, and over the last two years I have had major stressors in my life causing too much anxiety for a 20-something-year-old. I've always known that running/fitness is the one thing I can use to combat that because running feeds my addiction to endorphins which is turn make me happy.
So when I turned 25, I decided to change. My quest was born and something shifted in me. Burnout was gone. I've fallen in love with tunning again.
I'm thinking clearly.
I'm joyous.
I'm hearing what the hopes and plans for my future are.
And most importantly, I've realized that life is all about enduring.
Running helps me get that.
My hope is to inspire you in your journey of enduring and running and triathlon-ing and whatever else you're doing.
Because really, life is a race. So why not discipline.
Contact me at: enduringtrigirl (at) gmail (dot) com
or
follow me on Twitter and Pinterest
and tell me YOUR story.
Or just say hi.
But be careful. I might just get you addicted to endorphins.
*Check out my blog disclaimers here. And please know that I am not a certified ANYTHING (yet) so everything I say here is my own experience, opinion, and research. What I do might not work for you, but it works for me. So, experiment if you want but don't blame me. Find what works for YOU.
