REAWAKENING… “The renewal of an interest or feeling.”

This blog is about rediscovering yourself. I crashed and burned out from running for eight years. I had trained and raced 6 days a week for 29 years. Yes, I am now over 60 years old. This year, 2023, I awoke and discovered the flame was starting to burn anew. I am taking baby steps back into the world of running, and it has been really exciting to pursue my renewed passion for this sport. I want to share my new-found joy, and encourage everyone of any age that in falling down you can get back up. One day at a time, one step at a time, believe in yourself and know that you have the courage to persevere. So join me as I explore my new world with the knowledge I have gained in going through difficult times. It is never too late to take back your power and go for what you want. FYND A WAY.

Born Again Runner…So many of us have gone through so much, particularly from 2020 and the years since. My struggles began in 2015. I had lost my desire for the one constant in my life, running. I have been running pretty much my entire life. I have run for fun, run for competition, run for stress relief. I have been running away from things and toward things for decades.

In 2015 the wheels fell off. I was 53 years old. I was completely burned out from the sport.Let me give you a brief timeline. My first long distance race was the New York City Marathon in 1994. I fell in love with running and became addicted. In 2000, I decided to try my first ultramarathon. I chose the Marathon des Sables, called the toughest footrace on the planet. I became fully involved in the sport and pursued it full time. I ditched my career in television and pursued racing. I trained, raced, developed sponsorships, began a career in motivational speaking and raised money for charities near and dear to my heart. By 2015, I had competed in 62 marathons and 37 ultramarathons, for a total of 99 races. Just one more event and I would have 100 races of marathon distance or longer.

I couldn’t do it. I remember the night it all came crashing down. I had a training run in Miami, Florida. It was a hill training session, and the only hill in Miami was the Key Biscayne Bridge (Rickenbacker Causeway) Runners and bikers flocked to this area to get in their workouts. It is about 3 miles going out and back and has about a 4 percent grade. You can choose to run it during the day when the sun beats you down, or you can go at night when it’s cooler. But you have to endure higher humidity in the evenings.

I got out of the car, set up my aid station with food, water and ice and started up the bridge. I made it for one out and back. I couldn’t continue. I wasn’t having any fun at all. I was soaking wet from sweat and hating every minute of my workout. And that was it. I stopped running after that.

For eight long years I avoided the sport. I isolated myself from anything to do with running. I dropped out of racing and training. I quit social media and cut off all communication with my racing friends. My body and mind couldn’t contemplate running, and my body and mind couldn’t deal with not exercising. I had no way of releasing energy and became stressed out and anxious. I gained weight and lost muscle. I hated myself, and started to forget who I was or what I had accomplished.

Fast forward to April 5^th, 2023. I got up in the morning and wanted to go for a run. I was now living in Colorado. I have an eight mile loop in my rural neighborhood and I got dressed and headed out. I walked the entire distance and was completely winded. (I live at 8 thousand feet elevation) But it was great! It was fantastic to be outside again! I continued doing the same route for the rest of the week and that was it. I was hooked again.

Within a week I decided to train for a 50km race. I found an event that interested me that offered varying distances. Within one more week, I decided to do the 100 mile race. I don’t really know what happened. It’s just that once I started, I just got completely carried away again. It was like rediscovering myself.

I developed a training plan and gave myself less than 6 months to train for my race. Every day I would head out, and every day I would wonder if this was my last run. I didn’t know if this was just a passing interest and I would quit, or if I would be able to stick with it. But it was fun, and so I just kept telling myself that as long as I was having fun, just take it one day at a time. Just like the movie “What About Bob,” take Baby Steps.

It is now the beginning of June. Two months have passed since I discovered running again. Let me tell you this. It has been a blast! Every day I get up now and cannot wait to do my workout. There has been so much to learn. Getting out and going for a run sounds so simple. Put your running shoes on and go out and put in a few miles. But in training for a race there is so much more to it. And it’s also unbelievable how much has changed in the eight years I have been away from the sport. I feel like I am on a steep learning curve to come up to speed on the advancements in the sport. My next blog is going to be about how I put the building blocks together to work toward my chosen 100 mile race. I will be discussing training, nutrition, gear, visualizing and more.

I will end this and every blog by encouraging you to share your own stories of perseverence. Feel free to pass along advice or tips that can help and inspire other older runners to dig deep and accomplish their own goals.