Running therapy

At the risk of sounding all Oprah-esque, I seemed to have lost myself and I'm in the process of finding "me" again.

Summer is supposed to be about pina coladas (and getting caught in the rain), but so far my summer has been a battle against stress. and stress is winning.

Actually, scratch that. Stress WAS winning. It's not anymore.

Since the school year let out, I've spent the past month in complete disarray. My workouts have fallen to the wayside while my eating habits have gone straight to my waistline (get it? wayside-waistline? heh. heh. I'm so clever). The original HBIC, Eleanor Roosevelt, once said "no one can make you feel inferior without your consent". How right you are, Eleanor, how right you are. I let outside factors affect the way I behave, essentially changing who I am and that's not okay. I may not be able to control the things that happen to me, but I can control the way I respond to them.

Any runner will agree, running is cathartic (and a heck of a lot cheaper than retail therapy). There is something so pure and simple about lacing up your shoes and hitting the road. and yet, I abandoned running this past month. However, as I was spinning in my ball of stress, I realized it was all a big cycle. I felt like crap, so I didn't go running. I didn't go running so I felt like crap. ohhhh the irony.

So Saturday night I decided to reclaim myself. Stress, you've met your match. It was sunset, and I found a new running path along the harbor. As the sun went down over the Boston skyline, I could literally feel the weight of my problems falling off my shoulders. At one point, I was actually smiling as I ran. Ummmm, smiling during a run? Who am I!?

Towards the end of my run, I even thought "yay!!! a new blog post!" I was inspired again. I didn't have my camera with me then but I wanted to capture some essence of the happiness I felt during my run, so I tried to recreate it yesterday, except this time I dragged Sean out with me.

We ran a bit earlier too but you still get the idea. (we had delicious homemade calzones and wine waiting at home for us- I mean, that's why people REALLY run isn't it? So you can eat and drink whatever you want without feeling guilty?)

Please excuse the appearance...after a month off of running, I'm definitely not in the shape I was before my half marathon. Sweaty Beast = me. but I'll get back to it, especially when I do these stairs multiple times:

I can just hear the Rocky theme song now. Well, I can hear the Rocky theme laced with expletives as I curse my way to the top, but hey, whatever gets you through right?