Milestones: 5k, 10k and More

in #running8 years ago


This is a fragment from my upcoming book, Running For My Life, which will be launched this December.


It took me about one month to fully recover from that race.

The following 24 hours were grueling. I could barely sleep, my whole body was in pain and getting up from a chair suddenly climbed to the top 5 life challenges.

That’s how bad it was, from a physical point of view.

But from a mental point of view, I was thriving.

I remember the next morning like it was yesterday. I got out of bed screaming, I crawled to the bathroom, looked in the mirror and suddenly the person on the other side wasn’t so unbearable anymore.

I was still overweight, I was still depressed and delusional.

But there was a spark in my eyes. Something thin, barely visible, but there was something.

It took me a few minutes to find the words to define it, but I eventually nailed it: “I just ran a marathon”. Yes. Just that. That was the spark saying to me. “I just ran a marathon.”
That simple realization changed everything.

My self-esteem, battered and bruised, suddenly woke up. “Is there somebody calling me?” I could almost hear it whispering. “I am here, but I just need some help to get up. I never left you, but you beat me so hard, that I can barely move right now.”

I took one last look to the person in the mirror, shook my head, sending again waves of pain down my body and stopped the internal dialogue.

The deep feeling of happiness and accomplishment couldn’t be stopped, though. It was there. It was deep down, inside my being and it wasn’t going to leave anywhere.

From that point on, my life took a different path. The spiral down of dark thoughts and isolation stopped. Instead, a new direction appeared.

From that moment, more or less consciously, I started to make running the cornerstone of my activity.

image source: personal collection: Deer's Valley, Omu peak, Carpathian Mountains


I'm a serial entrepreneur, blogger and ultrarunner. You can find me mainly on my blog at Dragos Roua where I write about productivity, business, relationships and running. Here on Steemit you may stay updated by following me @dragosroua.


Dragos Roua


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