New Year, for many, holds the sentiment of new beginnings and fresh starts.
Generally, I try to start any personal resolutions before the New Year in order to kick start it with a bang. I also try to start around the same time I lost my dad, the 30th of December, because I need to remind myself that I had great inspiration in him and that I am still living and deserve for my life to be filled with health, adventure, fun and laughter. Running brings me all of this while knowing that it would make my dad incredibly proud to see me push every single one of my limits. A tenacity I learned from him and one which I want to pass to my own child.
I guess this post is to encourage those who have either recently started or still contemplating New Year’s resolutions to really think about what will drive them? The only person who can stop you is you! If you look around the running world is filled to the brim with inspiring people, people who once thought they couldn’t but dug deep and proved they could and so much more. What you will find is they all had something in common; a pivotal moment, a reason to run, a burning desire to carry on. Just have a look through my fellow Run Wales Bloggers stories! You have to find that burning desire and check in on the reason you began from time to time to keep you going. If done often enough eventually it will become a habit, a healthy one.
My running resolutions are as follows:
– Plenty of time outside exploring especially on the trails. – Using running to spend quality time with my family
– Try not to become bankrupt from races entries, but sign up for many.
– To start a new local running group.
– To encourage as many people as humanly possible to see that running is for EVERYONE who is blessed with two able legs and feet.
I shall leave this post with something I penned recently, the pivotal moment that keeps me going, my personal reason for running…
December 30th
‘Today I ran away. On a day which brings such heart ache I pulled on my boots and forged deep into the mountain cloaked in mist. Every time I felt that dull but enduring ache like a crushing weight upon my soul I pushed harder feeling my heart pound from deep within and rise up through my chest. And to the beat of my boots against the unforgiving ground beneath my feet I persevered. I found solitude in this state in undisturbed landscape, a sense of living in the unknown for I could not see where I was going but knew it would lead me to great things. You keep on giving even when you are gone. A memory which pushes me to my limits, an echoing voice ‘believe you can and you will’, a part of you; dogged and determined if not a little stubborn headed and when I reached the summit my breath became calm and still as I was filled with peace.
I ran. I ran away to the top of a mountain and I will keep on running until my legs can no longer carry me. For when I stop running my heart may well just break into a thousand pieces but as long as I can keep running, hear that beat from within my chest I have reason. I am living.’
Go find your reason to run, your reason for adventure and a reason to make 2017 a truly Happy New Year xxx