Stronger Body, Stronger Mind

About this time last year, I started taking charge of something I have always hated about myself: my body. I started exercising regularly and eating like a rabbit. The first 10-12 weeks I ran once a week, and then in the summer I started running several times a week. My body started changing, but what I didn’t realize for a long time was that my mind was changing, too.

There’s this thing called ‘hitting the wall’ that runners experience, especially marathon runners, near the 20-mile mark. It is a physical phenomenon that also affects the mind, a little voice telling you that you just can’t keep going, that you need to stop. Even people who run shorter distances experience this to a degree. There is a little nagging voice that convinces the legs that they are too tired and the lungs that they are going to burst at any second. The only way to fight that voice and to reach the goal is simply to keep on running. And it’s not merely a matter of physical endurance, but mental endurance.

I was thinking about this today, and I realized that runners who can run long distances, such as a marathon or half-marathon, are not just physically strong but mentally strong. As a runner trains and disciplines his body, he trains and disciplines his mind. This is why someone who doesn’t run regularly can’t conceive the thought of running even a 5k–he is both physically and mentally unfit. Perseverance is not letting that weak little voice cause you to quit running, even though all you want to do is to stop.

If someone had asked me two years ago if I wanted to run a 5k, I would have laughed. Me? Run? I don’t think so.

But as I’ve been reflecting on this past year and all the changes that have happened to me–physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, socially–I see that training and disciplining myself day-by-day has made me an altogether stronger person. I have ‘hit the wall’ on so many occasions–not just on individual runs, but over the course of this entire year’s journey. There have been so many times when I felt as if I were working so hard for what seemed like little or no change. But I have just kept going. I knew that if I stopped, it would be that much harder to start again.

One year later, I have lost just over 40 pounds. I went from a size 10-12 to a size 4-6. Even my shoes feel looser! Some of my health problems or discomforts have been eliminated or have greatly diminished. I’ve come a long way, but I’m not done yet. I still need to lose about 5-10 more pounds and tone my body. No big deal, right? Totally doable, right? It sounds so easy, but there are little voices of doubt whispering in my ear that I won’t make it. I am ‘hitting the wall’ again, but I know what I need to do: keep. going.

I think this experience has helped me become a stronger person. Definitely a more confident person, though I still consider myself to be shy. I think ‘hitting the wall’ is a necessary evil to show us what we’re made of. It gives us a chance to prove ourselves wrong, to strengthen our fortitude and jump over the hurdle…to ‘just do it.’

It is so, so hard. But it is so, so worth it.