….and My Story Runs On….

I always make it a point to run when I’m in a different place.  This was my 2nd trip to Lake Havasu (for Toastmaster duties) and I was REALLY looking forward to running along the Lake and channel.  Tuesday was a gorgeous day but I decided I would wait until Wednesday.

Well, as luck would have it, I woke up to a cloudy, grey morning.  My first thought was to blow it off….but I got it together and prepared for a 45-60 minute run. As I started running, I couldn’t get my mind off the clouds and how bummed I was that I hadn’t run the day before when it was a beautiful day.

At some point ,  my intuition and divine intervention magically entered into my consciousness and I started doing a few things that turned my gloomy run into an awesome experience:

• MY 5 SENSES:  I had done this exercise in a present moment awareness meditation at some point recently and it’s interesting that it came to me again during this run.  I focused on engaging one sense at a time.  What was I seeing during my run?  I saw a lot of neat things, including ducks sleeping on the shore and people watching on the channel.  What was I hearing?  I could hear the birds chirping, the wind rustling through the trees, it was very relaxing.  What was I smelling?  I could smell the lake water, unfortunately some fumes from the boats.  What was I feeling?  I could feel the refreshing  wind on my face and my hands.  I couldn’t really taste anything but you get the idea. Try this some time on a run.  It helps you stay very present on your run and enhances all your senses!

• FORM:  One of the reasons I love ChiRunning is because of the mind/body focus.  I started thinking about one form focus:  Relaxing my Lower Legs.  I thought about as many things as I could to relax my legs:  relax my ankles, make pretend I’m in a sandpit and leaving a clean footprint on the ground, The Peg Leg exercise, feeling like a puppet and keeping the knee soft with my ankle dropping right below it, letting the road bring my leg and upper thigh back with it instead of my muscles doing the work.  I repeated this sequence and the run continued to get more relaxing and enjoyable.

• MY CHOICE:  This is the 2nd time I try this (I did it on Sunday while on a 20K trail race when I was getting tired and wanted it to be over).  I tell myself:  I chose to be here.  I wanted to be here.  I start reminding myself of the reasons why I wanted to do this particular run.  As I start reminding myself of the reasons why I chose to run,  I start affirming and feeling good about it again. It really helped me out both times because I realized I could’ve chose not to run….but making the choice to run, was a better option both times!

How do you change a bad attitude while you are on a run?  Please share so we have more ideas together 😉

Enjoy these photos I took on my run yesterday..

From My Running Story to Yours….
(if you feel inspired to share your comments, do so below…I want to hear your story too!)