Running is pain.
Each and every step is a bone-grinding reminder that I’m not young anymore. I can’t quite do all the things I used to be able to do — at least not as fast, nor with as much ease.
But I try.
One year ago today, began my daily running routine. All 262 lumbering pounds of me shook the pavement with the full force of a jackhammer. I remember the pain as if it happened this morning. Perhaps that’s because today I felt many of those same pains once again. Indeed, I have come full circle to the place I was once before.
One year ago I weighed two-hundred and sixty-two pounds. Making it a full mile without stopping left me bent over, panting, and breathless. Running a few miles, even with deliberate stops in between, made my joints ache. After a few runs, my legs cramped up. At time, the pain was so severe, I felt paralyzed.
But I ran that first day. And the next. And the next, too. And with every step along the way, the one thereafter became just a little bit easier. Within a week of my daily run, I was already beginning to feel dramatic changes. Not only did I feel better physically, but mentally, as well. I also had lots more energy.
My lifestyle revolution — where I committed myself to running every single day with no excuses — began in the Bell Gardens section of Los Angeles on January 4, 2012.
And now today, it’s one year later. I have returned again to this place where it all started.
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