Crawl If You Must

I used to be a big ideas NOW person.  I would have this amazing idea that I would want to implement… tomorrow.  I felt that my big idea would change EVERYTHING.  In regards to teaching, I believed I could change student learning with one action. Test scores would dramatically rise.  Students would be enthralled. The only drawback was that it would take a complete overhaul of everything that I was doing right then – change the way I organized my classroom, change the way I taught a lesson, just change everything because what I was doing was not working.

I was a pretty stressed-out person.

I’ve been looking at life completely wrong.

Staying home with a baby has slowed everything down.  At first, I felt I couldn’t get anything accomplished.  And, I couldn’t.  Not in the way that I was used to anyway.  Months passed and suddenly I realized I was accomplishing big things in very little steps.  I completed two online college courses working toward a degree in administration.  I became a woman who breastfeeds her baby – something that still astounds me now that Dude is almost ten months old.  I started a blog and jewelry business with my dear friend Megan.  I lost my last stubborn 10 pounds of baby weight through running.

I became a runner again.

It did not happen overnight.  But after 7 weeks of diligently following a training program, I started to notice how much I improved.  Some days it is hard to leave the house.  I want to cry with frustration as I step out the door some mornings.  I remind myself of a petulant child screaming to myself, “Why are you making me do this?!?”  But I do it.  Then, one run done.  Celebration!

I realize that I don’t need big, dramatic steps to accomplish extraordinary things.  I just have to be consistent and get myself out the door.  When I started writing about Running with a Stroller back in February, I covered 2.2 miles in 40 minutes  Today, I ran 3.3 miles in 40 minutes.  That’s big.. and I’m still going.

When it was windy last week and pushing the stroller felt like running in place, I still went on my run.  When I had a glass (or two) of wine at an event on Sunday evening, I still went on my run Monday morning.  Both runs sucked.  But I did them.  And now, I’m seeing that simply continuing on is how I’m going to be fast.

In the words of Ultrarunner Dean Karnazes, “Run when you Can.  Walk if you have to.  Crawl if you must.  Never give up.”  On days I want to crawl, I’ll lace up my shoes, and crawl out the door.

Miss a week of the Running with a Stroller series?  Catch up here: Running with a Stroller