A few months ago (some time in September or October), I started training for a marathon. A friend was registered for one in February and wanted to get others in on it too. There were a couple reasons I was open to the idea - it was a concrete goal and I needed some way to keep fit. Also, the idea of running a marathon just sounded cool - a real achievement to be proud of. However, I wasn't exactly a big fan of running. Even though I had started running more often my last 2 years of college, it was a relatively sterile running experience; I'd hop on a treadmill and run a few miles, and that was that. Not a great experience by any means, but it was still an effective way for me to push personal boundaries and improve myself.
At the time, my accomplishments were pretty heady to me - running a mile was no big deal, but going for 2 then 3 were more than I'd expected to run pretty much ever, really. I ran anywhere from 3-5 times a week, sometimes getting up as early as 5:30 or 5:45 to squeeze in a few miles before leaving for class. My crowning personal achievement during this period was clearing 5 miles in <40. Running a mile in less than 8 minutes seemed a pretty decent standard to me - to take that pace and keep it up for 5 miles seemed like a lifetime achievement. Fast forward a couple years, and things are pretty different.
Earlier, going for 3 or 4 miles was something I made a conscious decision on - most days I'd run just a mile or 2 before lifting weights. Now, 3 miles is pretty much the bare minimum - and that's on a day where I feel sluggish or after a long break. More representative of a typical run lately has been 4 miles, with a 5 or 6-miler thrown in every 2-3 runs. Although this is my new normal, it's still astounding to me because I never would have guessed that I would have such a routine: get home after work, change into some shorts, and take off for ~30-45 minutes and clear 4 or 5 miles about 4 times a week. The difference between then and now goes way beyond the length or pace, though.
Now when I run, I start from my house and have a pretty set route that's 4 miles long, with additions for my longer runs. Instead of a treadmill, I'm out in the neighborhood - and it's definitely a beautiful one. I get to take in some fresh air and for about 3/4 of a mile near the end of my run, I'm sandwiched by beauty: a row of gorgeous houses to my left and the Mississippi River and the setting sun to my right. Although I'm not going at the <8-minute pace that I had been on earlier, I feel like there's a major gap in difficulty of running on a treadmill vs. running outside - namely, that running on a treadmill is much easier. The quality of my runs are so much greater. Running outside allows for variations in pace and flow, where I used to just throw on a set pace and go until I finished on a treadmill. Now, I can push to go fast, aim to keep the pace, or slow down on various stretches throughout the run. Particularly, it forces me to stay mentally sharp while I'm running - I have to push the pace if I feel like I'm going slow, try and maintain my speed if I feel like I'm coming up on my limits, and push myself real hard when I know I'm past the more difficult length of the run and can try and empty out what's left in the tank. It's such a different, deeper, and definitively more fulfilling experience.
The fulfillment comes from the fact that, even though I'm always keeping track of the pace I'm on, the consistent, relatively predictable action of running allows my mind to wander. I get to think about lots of things - things going on in my class, things going on in my life, things I need to do when I get back home, things in the world that interest me. I'm so amazed at the level of thinking that I get to do while I run - it's almost like meditating in that it's an opportunity for me to get inside my head. Plus, thinking about things that interest me, having the opportunity to reflect on my opinions, or taking the chance to more fully flesh out my thoughts - those are all things I love to do but haven't set aside the time for. Running has opened the opportunity to make sure that I'm flourishing both physically and mentally.
Beyond those needs, running consistently has really helped to ground me in the belief of improvement and hard work. Like I said, I never thought I'd be running this much. Here I am, though, doing it on a regular basis and at a pace I am proud of. This has really helped me professionally because those ideas/values are what I really try to impress upon my students- that no matter how bad they may be or think they are at math (or anything, really), hard work and self-improvement are all that really matter. Until (relatively) recently, those were things I could appreciate and promote intellectually, but that I had never really believed myself. Working hard and improving myself are things that I honestly haven't known for most of my life - I've always maintained (and still do, to a great degree) that I was born into the features that have made life such a breeze for me: a brain that can pick things up, a body that does most of what I ask it to, and a sense of humor that helps me connect to others. Starting some time in college, though, I (somehow) began to develop a work ethic.
While I've still got a long way to go concerning my work habits, I've already covered quite some distance. I'm proud of my college GPA - not because it's particularly good (or even good at all...), but because it feels so much more earned. Similarly, I have a much greater appreciation for my accomplishments in the past couple years - a good score on the GRE, getting into TFA, doing more pull-ups than I figured I'd be able to, starting to run a gazillion more miles than I used to. I haven't done anything outstanding or exceptional, but those are some of the things I feel like I worked particularly hard at. & now that I've seen the fruits of my labor, I can talk about hard work and self-improvement from the perspective of someone who's done some of it. Even as I'm discovering this, I know that I've got a long way to go - about a lifetime, actually. Still, though, the knowledge that hard work pays off is exciting because now I know and believe in it 10x more than I used to - and from there, I'm able to sincerely communicate that to my students without feeling like a fraud.
With regards to training for the marathon - I tanked. I started off with a pretty good schedule - I ran 3-4 times during the week, and on Saturday or Sunday I could pop off a long run. Some time in November, I think, my longest run was 12+ miles, and I had a few runs of 10-11 miles as well - on track to make a marathon if I could just add on one mile to my long run each week. Then I went home for winter break, and over those 2 weeks ran about 7 miles... total. By the time I came back to Natchez in January, running 3 miles was much more of a struggle than I was used to. I'd say it's taken me since then - about a month and a half - to get back to the grind. I've been running between 4 and 6 miles pretty consistently, but haven't tried any long runs in a few weeks. Not only that, but the marathon is next Sunday and I'm going to visit DC from Wednesday to Saturday to see my brother with Anne & Jeremy. Needless to say, 26.2 miles is not currently on the horizon for me, but that's okay - it's a much more real goal to me now that I'm a bit more familiar with what running such a long distance entails. Plus, this should finally be the year I average over 1 mile/day (365 miles in a year)!
Thanks for reading - I hope I've inspired you to lace up your shoes and go enjoy a run! Take your time, or push yourself - it doesn't really matter. Walk a quarter mile, jog 10, or sprint 1 - that doesn't matter either. As soon as you've made it outside, you're doing better than you were before - & that's what really matters.
