I came to a very important realization while I was running my 10 miles ever so slowly this morning. LOL. And it is this: I was not born to be a runner. (Hear me out here. *smile*)

I grew up a huge athlete. From elementary school up through my senior year in high school, I played sports year round. Volleyball, basketball, and softball were my sports. I was on the volleyball teams because of my strong serve.

In basketball, I stood firm under the basket. In fastpitch softballl, I was the 1st baseman who dove after the balls when they didn't come directly to me, and still got the out. I played on the Varsity teams for all of these sports, because of my strength, sturdiness, scrappy-ness, and fast reflexes. The Varsity soccer coach tried to get me to play one year, instead of volleyball, because he thought I'd make a rockin' goalie :) So, those are the athletic abilities and skills that came natural to me. NOT RUNNING. I was one of the slowest girls on every team I played. I had no desire to run, whatsoever.

Fast forward 20 years :) I became one. A Runner. 

It still doesn't come natural to me. I have to push myself. HARD. I will never be a fast runner. But I have trained and run in countless marathons  (26.2 miles) and half-marathons (13.1 miles) now!

For whatever reason, this time around I am running much much slower.  I don't know why.  My body is not allowing my to run at 10-11min paces on these longer runs like I have in previous rounds of training.  Just getting under 13 min/mi paces right now, actually makes me happy. LOL.  My body just is not cooperating this time around.  BUT, here's the point to my realization...  As long as I am giving the best that I know that I can give on any particular training run...then I am thrilled.  How many people can say that they have put in all of the miles to train for a marthon and have run in one?  It is a dedicated group for sure.  And I am one of them.

I was not born to be a runner.  But I have become one.