RCPD

The negative effects of a sedentary lifestyle caught up with me so I started exercising on a regular basis. I eventually tried running now that I could pursue it on my own terms. I even ran some 5Ks (3.1 miles) races even though I wasn’t very fast.

I met my own Jedi Masters when I joined a running club who showed me that training, focus, and discipline matters when speed is not my natural talent. I got faster, ran longer races, and chased new personal records with each race. Training for a marathon is hard and demanding. You need to commit to training runs during the week and long runs during the weekends that can last for four hours or more. One year I pursued a goal marathon finish time that had eluded me for several years. My coach gave me a plan that required 6-10 mile training runs during the week and target paces for my long runs. I did a lot of running alone in the dark and cold. I beat my goal time by seven minutes. At my peak running fitness I could have started training to attempt the Jedi Knight level of running: a Boston Marathon qualifying time. Then my life went into flux for several months and training was no longer a priority. When life normalized again, I ran a couple of fast half marathons and one final marathon days before the pandemic shut down the world. I thought that I would have more time to run, but life had other plans including a promotion at work.

Now I’ve stopped running marathons because I can’t commit to the training. I still run, but it has been hard to run like I did before. I’m slower now than when I first started running, and it has felt like my running Force is far away. Ahsoka’s words to Sabine about Force ability reminded me that I’m still a runner. It was Ahsoka’s response after Huyang’s comment about how Sabine would never have been admitted to Jedi training because of her lack of natural talent that reminded me why I hated P.E. as a kid, but love my running club. “I don’t want her to be a Jedi. I want her to be herself.” I realize that I need to remember to enjoy running again on my own terms, to be myself. My new challenge is focussing on the things that I enjoy when I run (smelling rosemary bushes, seeing local architecture, and conquering all of the hills), and discipling myself to give me the time to run more instead of defaulting to working late when I don’t need to. I might sign up for another half marathon since it seems I can train to do that. Lastly, I need to remember that my ability to run fast don’t make me a runner. I’ve always been one and always will be.