As a teenager, I played soccer for almost 10 years. I loved the sport, my team and not to brag or anything but I was in pretty good shape since I ran three plus times a week. I remember it being difficult, but not that hard since it was something I worked at a lot. There were some days that were harder than others, but for the most part, it came easily. OK, fast forward to now as a recent college grad in my early 20's. I just recently started running again, and oh my gosh...it is hard. I'm doing it to get back in shape, but there are definitely about 1,000 moments in those 30-minute runs where I want to quit. If you're a beginning runner like me, then you will totally understand these five stages of running. You know what I'm talking about.
1. This is so easy, I am a running Goddess.
You're about 1 minute in and yes, you feel like you're a Kenyan runner winning the marathon. You aren't even out of breath yet!
2. Hmm, this is getting kind of hard.
The fateful second minute has arrived, and you're starting to feel your muscles working harder and breathing shorten. This might be a little harder than you thought.
3. The sweaty, ugly stage.
No longer are you a running queen, instead, you are trying to manage your sweat glands while hushing your loud breathing as you pass other runners so you don't seem as out of shape as you really are. That makeup you had on from work earlier? Yeah right.
4. When is this over!?
EVERY part of your body is screaming at you, you're checking your watch every 10 seconds and you can see the finish line. Every second you want to stop, but you keep going. You think to yourself "I am NEVER doing this again."
5. You don't know how, but you did it.
When it's finally over, you have no idea how you did it. "You get used to it," they said. "It won't be that bad," they said. Wrong. Just so wrong. You only know these two things: everything is hurting and you're out of breath. But was it all worth it? Definitely. Will you do it again? Eh, maybe.
