9.17 miles (total: 2075.69 miles)
No, I am not restarting the Bored Runner challenge :) I am just continuing to run (sans the every day part).
I've got to tell you - it's been 6 days since the end of the 365 days, and once my mind let go of the daily running, I think I've realized just how much I've physically pushed the body. For 6 days, it just ached (everything you could possibly think of was in pain). Probably the pain was always there, I just never let it consume me, because I had to go run the next day (so it was never the option)... the mind over matter, which worked. This time there was no "next day", and the body just started whining, and all kinds of sores just showed up with vengeance.
I've rested and today went for a 9-mile run. Was it pain-free? No, of course not. Was it joyful? Of course, yes :) I suspect most of us runners have a complicated relationship with running - you could call it love-hate relationship, but I think it's more nuanced than that. If running were a person I was dating, I would definitely have broken up with that person long time ago. But running is more like a weird friend I keep hanging out with and who is so good for me in a really strange way - despite being pretty unlikeable a lot of the time.
I do miss daily runs - everything about it, the pain, the tears, the frustration, the adrenaline rush and the feeling of control and at the end the accomplishment. Hard to let it go :) I can't describe how hard.. it's a very intimate relationship you build with yourself and the activity that pre-occupies you.
Everybody should try running. And when I say try it, I mean do it long enough that you get through the part where it sucks ad into the fleeting but noticeable part where you actually think it's really fun! Because during every run, for a few seconds or a few minutes, you have a moment when it feels really good. You forget about the discomfort and you find your rhythm, maybe grace, and a feeling of strength and confidence as you move as well as you'll ever move... And that's one of the best reasons to run, and that's why I can't let it go.
So I will keep hanging out with my friend "running" for as long as I am alive... but on a more sporadic basis.
I am planning out my next challenge too (that one requires a bit of planning... so I will take that time).
- Bored Runner
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