The first Wednesday of each month, the Deb from Deb Runs will be providing a word about which to blog. Kind of like a nice little blog prompt. Posts can be fitness or health related, but don’t have to be, so really anyone can play along. Just be sure to link up with InLinkz on Deb’s main post, and share the love by reading and commenting on other’s participant’s posts.

Today’s word is Struggle

According to the dictionary, to struggle means: “to try hard to do something that you find very difficult.”

Yup.  I may be crazy but I have never DNFed in a race. And many have been a struggle.  It may have been because of physical pain, inadequate training, weather-related conditions and/or course elevation.  But I mustered through all of the above.

I’m not saying that no one should DNF (especially if they are injured.) But a run or a race is often a struggle that many runners endure.

I am not a natural athlete  I didn’t start running until I was 55.  And then only 5ks.  However, once I started running half marathons, I was addicted.  Why?  Because of the quote above. For me, every half marathon is HARD!!!

We usually don’t realize this until we are healed and have returned to running.

We learned how to avoid a repeat of the injury. Or we learned to love another sport such as swimming or biking.  Or more importantly, we learned to appreciate our ability to run.

So at first, I thought of the word struggle as having a negative connotation. Now I realize that it’s not a bad thing and that it is an essential part of our life as runners.

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I’m also linking this post with Susie and Rachel and Debbie and Lora for the Running Coaches’ Corner.

Happy Running! Have you had any STRUGGLES with regard to running? Please share.