Hi! Welcome back to Falling In Love With Fitness! I am so excited for today’s new blog post! I will be sharing the story of how I started my running journey and stopped fearing it!
You Couldn’t Pay Me To Run
All throughout my childhood, I absolutely hated running. It was like pulling teeth anytime I had to run laps at practice or do the Pacer Test in gym class. Running felt like torture. I think a big part of my hatred for running stemmed from not being good at it. Since I grew up on the bigger side, running was hard for me. I was always really slow, and I had the worst asthma known to man. As a kid, if I didn’t like doing something, I automatically was having the worst time of my life. Fun and run never existed in the same sentence. As I got older, running felt like it was getting increasingly harder so my hatred grew even larger.
What Made Me Start
During my weight loss/fitness journey, I thought maybe running would be easier for me since I had lost some weight. So I decided to just try running on the treadmill and see what happens. For the first time in years, I ran a mile, and I felt great. Now that mile did take me almost 15 minutes to do, but I did it! I was also shocked because it was not as hard as I remembered. This gave me a newfound confidence when it came to running. I no longer felt like running was something I couldn’t do, and maybe it could be fun.
After my first run, I decided to slowly try adding runs to my workouts. So about once a week, I would run about a mile or two, depending on how I was feeling. Now, I was not fast in the slightest, but my goal wasn’t speed; it was just to run without stopping. Over time, running started to feel less daunting and more like a fun challenge, as opposed to an obstacle. I felt a sense of accomplishment after every run that I didn’t get from my normal workouts, and I enjoyed that.
Running was starting to become a staple in my workout routine until I had to take a break from fitness altogether. In March of 2025, I broke my foot and was in a boot with crutches for 6 weeks. This injury was really hard for me, not because I thought it would undo all of my progress, but because I am always on the go. The one thing in life I hated more than running was sitting still. My broken foot kept me out of the gym and on the couch for way longer than I wanted. But this break from the gym made me realize how much I valued being active in my life. From going on walks with friends to doing my morning workouts, I love being physically active every day.
Once I was healed and out of the boot, my doctor told me not to rush back to the gym. My foot still needed time to heal, but I wasn’t required to wear my boot anymore. I started going for walks to slowly get back into my routine. Once more, I was out on my walk, and I saw hundreds of people running around Belmont’s campus. I realized it was the Nashville Rock & Roll Half Marathon. I was blown away by the people running. They looked like they were having so much fun, and I saw so many Belmont students out there running. Watching them all run past honestly made me so jealous. I wanted to be out there with them, feeling the way they felt, and experiencing what it’s like to run a race.
My First Race
After watching all of the half-marathon runners from the sidelines, I decided that I wanted to get into running, so I signed up for my first 5k. This race was the annual 5k in my hometown at the beginning of summer. I had a little over a month to train and prepare. There were so many thoughts going through my head after I registered. I was excited to run my first race, but I was nervous about being able to do it. A 5k is 3.1 miles, and the most I had ever run at this point was 2 miles, and that was before I broke my foot, so I knew I had my work cut out for me.
I started running every 3 days to start building up my stamina before the race. I would alternate doing interval runs of walking and running, or I would just run without stopping for a certain distance. Since this was my first ever race, I wasn’t using a training plan; I was just winging it. There was some method behind my madness. I gradually increased my distance up to 2.5 miles, so I would feel prepared to conquer that last 0.6 of a mile on race day. The month of training had passed, and race day was here. I was so nervous but equally as excited. I was feeling confident that I would be able to finish the race, but I did have one goal I was striving to achieve.
My goal was to run the entire race without taking walking breaks. This was definitely going to be a challenge, but I was ready. I got to the starting line, they counted us down, and I was off. Halfway into the race, I felt like I was flying. Nearing the end of the route, I turned the final corner, seeing the finish line in sight, and ran straight through it. As I ran through the finish line, I completed my goal of running the entire race without stopping. I also accomplished a goal I didn’t even know I had: finishing my first 5k in under 30 minutes. I had never been prouder of myself than I was in that moment.
Now It Brings Me Joy
Running my 5k was just the beginning of my running journey. That race showed me that there is more to running than feeling out of breath and having sore legs. I felt a sense of confidence in myself that I had never felt before. I accomplished the thing that felt impossible for so long, and it was fun. The number 1 thing that has impacted my weight loss/fitness journey is making it fun. No one wants to do things that make them feel miserable, and improving your physical health should not make you feel this way.
This race opened my eyes to the joy running can bring into your life if you give it a chance. Without that chance, I would have never run my 10k, and I wouldn’t be 6 weeks out from my first half-marathon. Even though I still feel very new to the sport of running, you can feel the joy of running as a beginner.
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