"Homemade Education" Blog

There are many things that I have accomplished, but the one that I am most proud of is running. I am still fairly new to running, so I have not accomplished all that I can, but so far I feel very accomplished. I first became interested in running as a hobby. At first, I thought all I needed to do was move my feet and run. I was very naive to the world of running; I did not know that there is a “science” to it. When merely moving my feet did not get me the results I wanted, I began reading about running first. I learned about the rules to running, such as the best times to run, how to eat properly, and what shoes are best for optimum performance. After gaining this knowledge, I felt a little more prepared. The first step I took to achieving my goal was to start walking, baby steps if you will. By walking I was able to get my body used to going distances such as two to three miles at a time. Increasing the mileage helped to increase my stamina. I found that when I tried running before walking, I was not able to run for more than two minutes before it became hard to breath and I had to stop. I was very discouraged in the beginning, but I kept with it. I think that is the most difficult aspect of running, is just keeping with it. It takes time to get good at it. I am the type of person that if I am not good at something from the start, I quit. But I wanted to be a runner. After walking for a couple of weeks I began running, slowly of course. I found that because I took my time and took baby steps, it was easy to start running. I was not able to run as far as I was walking, but I found that my stamina had increased. Running then became a challenge, a fun challenge; I would push myself a little further each day. I would learn my limits and find that with time, those limits would change. Now I can run miles with ease.

The hardest part of running, is sticking with the routine. I would say that sticking to the routine is the most important part of running. Once I got into the routine, I found that I looked forward to running; it became just as essential as eating and sleeping. My initial goal was to start running, and once I accomplished that, my goal became to stick to it. It is very easy to miss a day, and then the next day talk yourself out of it, especially when the weather is not cooperative. Today, I am not as focused on running as I have been in the past due to work and school, but it will always be something that I enjoy doing. I said that this is the accomplishment that I am most proud of because I feel that it took a lot of will power to accomplish. I had to take many steps (literally), and overcome small obstacles to achieve this goal.