Running Is My Thing & An Injury Stole It From Me (For Now)

Hi. Wait. Stop. Don’t read any further. I mean, I’m so glad you’re here, but I wrote this post about finding your thing and you should read it first or the one below might not make a lot of sense. Well it would still make sense, but I want you to find your thing so while it’s not required you read the other one first I sure would appreciate it if you did.

The Thing I Love Doing as Much as I Love Cream in my Coffee

My thing is running. As a matter of fact, I love running so much that I’d give up coffee if someone told me it would make me a faster runner. You know how much I love coffee, right? So you know what big deal it is for me to make such a strong statement. Of course it goes much deeper than a love for running. It’s how I feel while I’m running and especially after a run (hello, runner’s high). Running is when I clear my head and it’s also when I feel most at ease. With every footfall I feel (at least) some of my stress melting away and my mood improving. It is, without a doubt, the single most important thing I do to care for my mental health. On a day when I’m feeling like all I want to do is crawl into bed and hide underneath the covers running is my salvation. And I can say, beyond a shadow of a doubt, I always feel better after a run. It’s my thing, after all. It’s what I do for me. It motivates me, it brings me joy, and I plan to do it as long as my body will keep putting in the work.

Can I tell you, though, what sucks about having something you love so hard you can’t live without it? When something happens to prevent you from doing that thing. Sundays are pretty much my favorite day of the week. It’s the one day of the week when nobody in my family has to go to work and there usually isn’t anything written on the calendar. It’s also the day I run long. On a recent Sunday I laced up my shoes, strapped on my watch, filled my portable water bottle, and headed out the door with a plan to run 5 miles. The weather was perfect and it was just me and the pavement and no goal in particular except to keep a slow and steady pace. About a mile into the run my left ankle turned in a way ankles aren’t meant to turn and I fell to the ground. I tried to get up and walk it off, but I immediately went back down to the ground. It hurt. It hurt a lot and almost immediately began to swell. I laid on the ground and waited for my husband to come and pick me up. All I felt was fear. Fear that it was going to sideline me. Fear I’d lose the thing I need as much as I need to breathe. I got angry at myself for letting it happen. I wished I could turn back the clock and maybe take a different route. I wished I had paid better attention to the ground. You name it and I pretty much felt it, but mostly I started to feel the pain. And the tears streaming down my face.

Fast forward to today. As I sit here typing I’m looking down at an Aircast boot on my left leg because the diagnosis was a distal fibula fracture and severe sprain. This boot will be my only (not) running accessory for the next several weeks and while my mood is up and down I’m trying to focus on the long-term and that I WILL run again. It’s been hard, though, because running is my thing and I can’t do it right now. I have no doubt I’ll shed more tears about my situation, but I’m also planing a really good cross training workout plan that I can do while wearing this darn boot because I firmly believe in not making excuses.

So please figure out your thing and do it. Do it for yourself and do it often. If you already know your thing I hope you’re making it a priority in your life because you just never know when it could be stolen away from you.