My Running Story: Kim

My name is Kim and I am not a natural athlete. I was forced to play sports growing up and I was terrible. And terrible is probably an understatement. In middle school I finally got a rebound during one of the few times they let me off the bench in basketball, and I was so excited I took the ball down for a layup AT THE WRONG GOAL. Luckily I was terrible and missed, but it was still plenty humiliating.  I always stayed active growing up, I liked to find things to keep me healthy, but I was never athletic by any means.

This pictures is me after the Cotton Row 5K in 2009. My finish time was around 39 minutes and I thought I was dying when I crossed the finish line. I barely trained for the event and mainly just did it because my brother and husband were doing the 10K and I did not want to be left out. It was terrible. I swore off running indefinitely and consoled myself with boxes of donuts.

But I still needed to get healthier...so I had a dilemma. If I hated running, what should I do? I joined Huntsville Adventure Boot Camp in 2010 which was an all female group that met at 5:30am weekday mornings. After about a month with that group I started getting some confidence and thought...maybe I should try running again.

In 2011 I revisited the Cotton Row race, but this time I did the 10K and I LOVED IT. It's amazing how much nicer running is when you've trained properly. The problem was, my past failures at running taught me that I'm not very disciplined on my own. The boot camp helped me get into 10K shape, but I knew I'd need more if I wanted to try longer distances. That is when I made the best decision of my running life...I joined the half marathon training program at Fleet Feet Sports.

Not only did that program help me to train for a half marathon, but it introduced me to the joy of running with people. I fell into a wonderfully supportive community that I have been a part of and expanded every since. After my goal race was over I kept signing up for new challenges and even started trail running! Since that half marathon in 2011 I've done 17 half-marathons/25Ks and I've done 18 marathons+. I've done one 50-milers and one 100K. I've done a local stage race (3 days of trail racing) twice.

In other words? I am now an athlete. It didn't come naturally, and it took me a long time to admit it to myself, but I am.

I still like to refer to myself as a "completer" not a "competer" - meaning my goal is always just to finish. But I do finish.

The funny thing is, running not only made me an athlete, it made me a friend. I suffered from incredible social anxieties (still do in many ways) for years, but running has helped me cope with those because getting to know people during a run eliminates all need for pretense. You can't fake be someone you aren't when you're discussing boob chaffing. That's a fact. Running has become my therapy and I've made friends on the road and on the trails that will last me a lifetime.  We do more that build strength and endurance in this community, we build support networks and families.

This weekend I just finished the toughest race of my running career so far. It was a local 50K (Mountain Mist) and the conditions were challenging, to say the least. I spent a lot of time during that race thinking about how lucky I am to be in a community that pushes me outside my comfort zone. I had friends on the course and volunteering. Smiling faces at aid stations pushing me along. I've come a long way since 2009 - both physically and mentally - and running has enriched my life more than I ever knew was possible. I earned my athleticism as an adult, I was not born with it. I like to believe this means I won't ever take it for granted.

My Running Story - Chelsea

Me, starting No Boundaries in 2011 vs me coming
 back a year later as a coach!

Throughout my whole life I was a self-conscious person. I was constantly concerned about what people thought about me and how I looked, and I was obsessed with comparing myself to other people to see how I lined up. This mindset stuck with me all the way from childhood to my early 20s. In the fall of 2011, I was 21 years old, overweight (weighing over 200 pounds), I was struggling with anxiety and depression, and I had zero self-confidence. I cried in dressing rooms every time I had to go shopping for new clothes and I felt threatened by other women's beauty. I was a jealous and insecure person. I had a good and happy life, a supportive and fun family, and a wonderful fiancé who loved me no matter how I looked. But that lack of self-confidence always lingered in the back of my mind-- maybe if I was "skinny-er" I would like myself more? With that mindset, I decided to pick up running, as it seemed like the cheapest exercise I could do on my limited college student budget. One afternoon at work I saw a flyer for the Fleet Feet Huntsville No Boundaries 5k training program. I was such a shy person, and I HATED trying new things and especially doing things alone. So to this day, I cannot tell you what made me sign up for the program, but years down the road I am still so grateful to my past self for taking that step. It truly did change my life completely.

Finish line of the Rocket City Marathon

I should note that I have never been an athletic person in my life. I never played sports, I hated PE class, and the closest I ever got to exercise was the once a year powder puff football game I begrudgingly participated in at summer camp. When I showed up to my first No Boundaries meeting, I was a nervous wreck. WHY did I do this? Maybe I should just go home. There's no way I can be a runner! I was anxious and afraid, but somehow I convinced myself to get out of my car and gather with my fellow trainees. On that first day, we ran a one mile. I had never run a mile before in my entire life, and to be perfectly truthful, I thought I was going to die. While running that mile, I cursed running and swore off the group completely. But then I finished! It was exhilarating! I did it! I can't believe I did it!

No Boundaries was just a small taste of all the wonderful things that eventually came in to my life because of running. I finished my first 5k (Rudolph Run 5k) with that group, and throughout the training I met so many amazing people that I still run with to this day. After No Boundaries, I joined the Next Steps 10k training program and completed the Cotton Row 10k. After that, I got *really* brave and decided to join the Half Marathon training program and successfully finished the Huntsville Half Marathon. In the winter of 2013, I did something I always said I would never do: I ran a marathon, and of course, I trained for it with the Fleet Feet 26.2 Training Group. Along the way, there were highs and lows to my journey; I doubted myself constantly, and often felt like I wasn't a "real" runner yet. But thanks to the wonderful support system I found in the training groups, I never ever gave up... even when I really wanted to! Without the coaches and mentors I had in these groups, I never would have had the courage to keep going. They all believed in me before I ever believed in myself, and being a part of this community has taught me so many valuable lessons.

Somewhere in the midst of all that training, running became a lot more to me than just a way to lose weight and have a smaller pants size. Instead of looking at my body and feeling ashamed and embarrassed, I began to appreciate it for its ability to be healthy and strong. My weight has certainly changed a little throughout this adventure, but my mindset has been transformed completely. No longer do I cry when I can't fit into a pair of jeans in a store that caters to size zeros,  and no longer do I hide or shrink or feel ashamed of what I look like. Losing this obsessive mindset over my looks opened my eyes to see things about myself that I never had time to notice before: I'm a good friend, I'm fun, people like me because I'm not afraid be silly and laugh, I'm loyal, I'm a really good cook, I'm kind. My body is capable and fit, but it is not the most important thing about me; it is my tool to experience the incredible world we live in, and that's why I enjoy taking care of it, respecting it, and occasionally pushing it to its limits. Who cares how much I weigh right now or what I look like, I can run marathons!

These days I am an avid long distance trail runner (the woods are my happy place), mentor of the very same Fleet Feet training groups I was a participant in, and new member of the Huntsville Track Club Board. In the past two months I have finished two 50k races and full marathon as a part of the Huntsville Grand Slam series, just going to show that you should NEVER say that you'll NEVER do something!! My running friends have become my family, and my adventures with them have been some of the best times in my life. I am so thankful for what this journey has given me, because it has transformed into so much more than I ever anticipated. I fell in love with the active life, and more importantly, I fell in love with the way that being active made me feel-- vibrant, confident, happy in my own skin, and capable of nearly anything.

My trail buddies, aka, my family!

If you are interested in reading more about my adventures, you can find me at my blog home here: Chelsea Runs

My Story - What's it all about?

This blog is all about YOU and your story. Filled with stories of how you started running, why you started and what keeps you running. We want this to be a place where people can go to find inspiration and guidance.

Want to contribute something? Send us an email and we will add you as an author, werunhsv@gmail.com.