Running Restores

On Sunday morning I met a couple of really good friends for a run. Our run was easy, laid-back, casual… we didn’t have a planned route. If we saw a place we wanted to explore, we turned and ran there. We ran through a lovely little park and found some beautiful places with luscious green grass. (Which is probably totally irresponsible in the water-starved desert, but man does it make a difference in visual aesthetics AND temperature…)

I typically do my long runs on Saturday, which also means I end up running by myself a lot. I don’t mind, I really enjoy running alone as well. At those moments I can zone out with either music, or an audiobook or just my own rambling thoughts, giving myself ME time. But this week on Saturday I had to deal with taking my car in for regular service, I was playing the role of “doting wife” for my sick husband (which meant washing about 8000 loads of laundry from all of his business travel he’s been doing lately) and other home-based chores. Fitting in a long run was starting to cause me a little anxiety. Once I calmed down and realized I could push the run back a day (DUH!), I felt a lot more centered.

I actually started to feel down, sad and in a funk on Saturday. I often get lonely since I telecommute and when that sets in, it really messes with my head. Since I was alone all week and then my husband was kind of zoned out in front of football, my loneliness continued. Running with friends on Sunday was exactly what I needed. Getting up early to run and grab bagels with my friends had the power to make me feel more alive and connected.

So thank you Molly and Jimmy… for being such good friends to me!

onelittlejill says:

November 24, 2009 at 8:47 pm

This past weekend was the first time I ever ran with anyone. I am always so afraid that people will think I am too slow so I prefer to run alone. Now that I have ran with someone, I love it. It makes me want to be a better (And faster) runner.

Jill Will Run says:

November 25, 2009 at 8:33 am

I truly believe that running with other people improved my running immensely. Not only does it give you a boost to run faster (assuming you run with faster people), but it’s great practice at keeping conversation going while you run… so it does double-duty on improving your cardiovascular fitness! But really, I was terrified before my first group run… afraid I would be a super-slow person, holding everyone up. I was pleasantly surprised to find there were runners of all different speeds and it challenged me to be more honest in my running. On my own before, if I felt tired… I could walk and no one was around to know. But with the group, it made me realize that I am capable of more than I realize.