I Stopped Running
It’s a weird headline but it’s true.
My story begins with the love I have for sports. I have been able to participate in a few such as football, basketball, volleyball, hockey, bike rides and athletics. The passion started from a young tender age of probably about 6 or 7 years old.
I was heavily influenced by my upbringing where the ratio of boys to girls in my area was about 4:1. Therefore we majorly played all games that the boys did because my girlfriends and I found their games so interesting especially because it was mostly competitive and the numbers of players helped.
Any way, Let’s go back to running. I did that from primary school to High school then stopped during campus. Story for another day then resumed when I started working. You can ask why here.
The love for running became consistent mainly due to the community I had and also I could do it by myself even with no company as it became my stress reliever when things got tough. Plus I hail from the city of Champions so we can say that’s an added advantage.
Then I STOPPED
The answer to this was I was made redundant in early 2023 and I couldn’t wrap my head around it. The sadness cut so deep and nothing made sense. I lost my sense of purpose mainly because I used to think if everything didn’t work out, my fall back was to immerse myself into work and running was my avenue to relax. I realized later that it was a ‘god’ I had believed in sorting all my issues.
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Since everything that made sense because I was working stopped making sense. Especially when the many calls I had stopped coming in, I felt not important to people and basically my parents or partner would call. With everything I forgot about me and what I needed to release the pressure.
Anyway the story here is that I stopped running. I stopped running away from my fears, from the emptiness and pain I had. The small support system I had, gave me strength to realize that life moves on and there is something else I would do during this season.
During one of my conversations with someone they made me remember that I should do the things that I was able to do when I felt my head was going to explode.
Then I resumed running.🙌🙌🙌 First through my friends gym. Then when I finally settled and accepted my fate, I remembered my love for running. There was this group on Instagram that I started following mainly because I loved the I joined a community of runners/walking buddies. Not knowing anyone there, the club was very accommodating and welcoming and that’s how I resumed running.
As I am writing this, I have done about 4/5 runs with them and the first run I felt like now my lungs were going to collapse. I discovered that instead of running my target of 6km I got lost and found myself doing the 12 km . But, any who I got a friend who was sent by God- yes I am a believer, she walked with me the whole way when my knee almost gave up and made me come back again and again.
The point here is I stopped running but I am BACK. Though in a definitely slower pace, I still feel better about it. This is because I am able to feel myself again and it gives me the perspective that seasons changes and we should embrace with the gift that God gave us.
