Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Running Smiley when you can't run

[The Run Smiley Collective Administrators Note:
Sally sent us this blog-post -her first- to share.  How being injured has allowed her to Run Smiley without actually running.

Her blog post can be found at http://sally-runningsmilelywhenyoucantrun.blogspot.com/ ]

This summer marks 30 years of consistent running for me!! I have been celebrating this by  embracing barefoot running wholeheartedly. So much so in fact that I made a crucial mistake of over training recently which of course resulted in an injury :((

After 2 weeks of mental struggling...I have realized that there is a deeper well to running smiley than I had noticed before. Whether barefoot or shod, running smiley is always about the smile buried deeply under all of the daily struggles of life. On a good day, running smiley is obvious. On a good day, we strive to achieve our pre -conceived goals. We smile when we accomplish them.

Even though I have run for 30 years, missing daily run is always an interior panic attack. Through years of minor injuries, setbacks, scheduling conflicts,raising  kids, owning a business, I was always a RUNNER.  If you aren't one -you just don't get it.

Barefoot running has set me free. Not in the ways you might expect though.

Yes, there are the obvious ones. But deep deep inside....it has set me free of myself. It has set me free to ENJOY running at it's core. It has taught to release my grip on expectations. To inhale and enjoy every breath,every step.

As I age, injuries are more threatening. When you are young, you know you will heal.When you are in your 50's, you are not so sure any more. The first thought is always -will I really be able to run again?

This week my goal is to take the WHOLE week off of running to heal.  That is very hard to do. I can run through pain, walk in pain all day and still get out the next day and do it again.  But this week my goal is to
run smiley without running .

Running smiley without running....dig deep into the smiley well and reach for the essence of running :)))

1 comment:

  1. Wow! I understand more than you know! Congrats!

    ReplyDelete