The best running advice I ever got
I was never much of an athlete. In high school my gym elective was ‘walking’ (which consisted mostly of walking to Starbucks to grab a latte and stroll back to school). I have horrible coordination and if someone throws a ball in my direction I’d rather duck than try and catch it.
Do not mistake me for a couch potato. I love hiking (and was a tour guide for a few years), I always prefer walking to driving, I practice Yoga for almost 20 years by now, but I was never a jock. So how did I end up running?
Start
When I was in my early twenties I saw people around me running in the park. I loved how easy it is for them to go out for a run, how effortless it seemed and mostly the fact that it required no commitment. No gym membership, no specific hours or schedule and hardly any equipment (well, there’s shoes but that is something that is required for almost any outdoor activity, including strolling down the street). It seemed like the perfect sport for me.
There was one problem. Seeing that I never did run in the past (if you don’t count the few running tracks we had to complete during high school) I wasn’t quite sure how to start. How do you get from wanting to run to actually running?
This was when I reached out to my dad. My dad likes sports in general. He practices Karate since I was born (and holds a black belt by now), rides his bicycle, used to sail in a sail boat and was also a runner. He is the kind that goes out for a run in the mornings and also ran half a marathon a couple of times.
I told my dad I wanted to start running and was looking for advice on how to start. He looked at me and with the most serious expression he could put on, he said “it is very important when you start to do it one leg at a time. If you start running lifting both legs in the air you will probably fall”.
I realised I should simply start. And it doesn’t really matter if I run fast or slow, near or far, I should simply run. I put on my running shoes (at that time it was simply my shoes), locked the door, came down the stairs from my apartment to the street and started running to the park.
Keep going
I started running short distances. 3K at first and up to 5K. It was not a fast run but it was fun and for a while there I thought I nailed it.
At the time, Nike held a yearly night run in the city of Tel Aviv. It was a 10K run all through the city and I wanted to participate. The problem was that by that point I managed to run no more than 5K. I had no idea how to get up to 10K.
I decided to reach out to my friend Einat. Einat is the kind of person that seem to never really be surprised with the world. She simply takes it as is and handles it. I used to come to her to complain about this and that and her response was “did you really expect it to be any different” (which in a weird way helped me to get over my moaning mood and actually do something). She doesn’t spend her time bitching about things she cannot change, she simply does what she can.
Einat is also a runner and at that time was practicing for her first half marathon. One day I came to her with my challenge “I want to run 10K” I told her, “how much do you run today?” she asked. “I run 5K” I told her. “And what happens after 5K?” she asked me, “I finish the run. I stop running”. She looked at me and said “well, don’t stop”. And that was pretty much her advice.
Within a month I went up from 5K runs to 10K. I ran that “Nike night run” race and a few other races following that one. What happens after 10K runs today? Well, I stop running. I haven’t tested her advice to go up for more than 10K, but I am pretty sure it holds.
Running has been there for me in the past years. Every couple of months I stop (summertime weather is hard for me) and when I come back to it, unfit and starting over, I always think of these two advices which for me translate to “start and keep going” and I find that they probably hold for more situations in life beyond cardiovascular activities.
During the past year, in between lockdowns, WFH and no-school for kids I found myself running more and more. Without any music or headphones (as my mind was anyway exploding with thoughts and this was my ‘me’ time), in morning or night time, at the fields or the streets. I don’t run every day and sometimes a week goes by without me putting on my running shoes, but when I do I never regret it.
