The Slow Metamorphosis of a Non-Runner

I have never liked running. It would be more accurate, actually, to say that I really disliked it. When Xee and I were first married, he convinced me to go running with him. Uuurrgh. Okay, for my new hubby, I would do anything. Well, we didn't exactly get very far before the whining started: "This hurts my shins. I don't like this. I HATE this." Xee realized rather quickly that his life partner would definitely not be his running partner.

After my dad died, we came home from California and began to settle back into our daily routines here. On one of my regular walks out to the beach to exercise with Phoebe, something happened to me. I was pushing the stroller along, listening to my iPod, and under the weight of all that I had been feeling, the emotional exhaustion and the pressing grief upon my heart...I just wanted to run away. Suddenly, without thought, with total abandon, like an instinct really, I was RUNNING! Me. The non-runner. The despiser of running.

I felt the breeze against my face, felt my feet hitting the pavement. Running from something. Running toward it. Hitting it head-on. And then there were tears. Wonderful tears. And sweat. Lots of sweat! And panting...lots of that too. And healing.

I have started to run a little more and more during my work-outs. And little by little, the duration of which I jog, sprint, whatever, is increasing (especially if I am on the grass). Would I call myself a runner? I don't know if I would go that far. But if you ask me if I run, the answer is now, "Yes." Yes, I run. In fact, last week we all exercised as a family on Xee's day off. He pushed the stroller, and you know, without that extra weight of a 30lb child in a 17 lb stroller, I was moving. I had no idea I had it in me.

Neither did Xee. He said, and I quote, "You run like a gazelle." I was a little shocked to hear that from a man who, for years, has said, "You run kind of funny." Well, my husband may be a little biased...he was running behind me, of course, and maybe he enjoyed the view. That is all I will say about that!

Anyway, who would've thought? Nine years after our first (and what I thought would be our last) run together, this might just be a regular thing. I may be fit to be a running partner after all. And isn't it just like God, to use something totally unexpected in our lives, to bring peace, and comfort, and restoration, and endurance. Life is moving. And so am I.