Sweat it Out...
Posted by Jodi Eckland June 13, 2012
Maybe it’s the weather?
I had been feeling really — and I mean really — unmotivated to go outside to run these days. It got to the point where I waited in line at a small and sweaty community centre just to have my 30-minute turn on a treadmill in a room that was lacking a desirable view and ventilation. What is wrong with this picture?
Can’t say no
Lucky for me, I have a group of friends that are more like family to me who pick me up and dust me off in circumstances like these. My favourite, Graham, not only lends me a shoulder or an ear but drove over to my house to pick me up at seven in the morning on Sunday to go out for a run in the trails of Lynn Valley off Seymour Parkway. Now, if I were completely honest, I wasn’t exactly keen to go, but couldn’t turn him away once he arrived now could I?
Friends like these…
As we drove up to the parking lot, I found myself nervous. I hadn’t ran with Graham since we did the Nike Women’s Marathon for charity many years before and I definitely was not in the same shape nor had the same body to work with as I did back then. Not to mention this is a man that has since started a running group that plans to run 230km in Costa Rica raising money for sustainable education in Ethiopia called Going Coastal. I mean, he is the real deal when it comes to running... *gulp*
Team Spirit
As I slipped my feet out of my flip-flops, began putting on my compression socks and lacing up my trainers, Graham sat grinning. I thought this was going to be an inspirational pep talk (something I’ve come to expect from him). He was saying he knew I haven’t felt supported or motivated lately and he wanted to help me get out of this runner’s rut I was in… so… he had the Going Coastal team join us and cheer me on, a complete surprise to me. Feeling blessed, a little embarrassed, we were off…
Sweat it out
I forgot how it felt to really get lost in my thoughts, in the silence of the forest with nothing but nature and the sound of my feet pattering from rocks to logs and I dashed through the trail feeling more like a gazelle than a runner… This is what I needed, to wash away my week, relight that fire within me and remind me how truly beautiful people can be, inside and out.
And now…to enjoy my American size Red-bull and Starbucks Oat Fudge Bar, that’s recovery food, right?
