How To Finally Start A Running Habit

I was sitting across from my friend in a tattered brown leather booth at a Thai restaurant on a busy street in San Diego. I lifted the fork from my bowl of brown rice and vegetables, took a bite and then laughed at what my friend had just finished saying.

“My average run is around five miles.”

“I can hardly run one,” I quickly responded. “I can’t imagine running five.”

And, at the time, I couldn’t.

I had started running [again, for the umpteenth time] earlier that week. My first run went — to put it lightly — awful.

I started out full of hope….

“Look at me! I’m running!!”…

…and then, after all of about one singular block, all hope had disappeared into the ceaseless void of my run tracker.

This was the exact opposite of a runner’s high.

It was a runner’s low. A runner’s rock bottom.

I spent the rest of that run heavily heaving struggling to catch my breath like I was in a room quickly filling up with water, wishing I was doing anything else. I hated every. single. moment. of that first run.

And the moment, the literal second, it was over….

I wanted to do it all over again.

18 months ago, I ran a whopping total of zero miles per week. Since then, I’ve successfully completed one full marathon, two halves, and a handful of 5Ks. I am far from a world-class runner nor was I exactly an athletic person when I started running. In fact, I was the opposite. I had just quit smoking and was almost 100 pounds overweight when I started running.

Then, after consistently running for one year, I had lost nearly 100 pounds and felt better than ever.

I am certain that if I can build a healthy, sustainable running habit from the condition I was in, so can you.

Running changed my life. Here is a list of just some of the benefits I’ve received from running:

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