Running Therapy

Monday, December 03, 2012 · Mike Davis

The past 2 weeks have been a challenge for me as I have had to deal with a huge disappointment that really stung me. Life has a way of sucking the life out of us at times and I truly believe it’s those times that end up defining us. As I sulked through my disappointment I decided to turn to what works best for me, so I laced up my shoes and went running!

As I made my way through the streets and back roads of Dover, my mind started with many questions and worked its way to a few conclusions and maybe some ideas. Each run started with bottled up frustration and finished with satisfaction. Life is certainly hard at times and for some it’s truly harder than others. I feel generally blessed and I know that my frustrations don’t begin to stack up to what many are experiencing; however for me the disappointment was real and painful. Running lets me or maybe forces me to think through my pain and disappointment and move forward. Some events aren’t going to get solved but the ability to move forward makes a huge difference. When I’m running by myself I have no choice but to process my thoughts and look forward to all that is in front of me.

Last week I logged in 26 miles and they were tough miles, not only because of the physical challenge, but also each mile forced me to confront my pain and deal with it. Many people have been great and very helpful, but words while nice don’t change the circumstances. Running forced me to talk to myself and get things in prospective. My goal for this week was to run 27 miles (one more than last week), but because of other events I ended up with 23 miles of running. I am not at all disappointed as those were 23 valuable miles and they help to continue my therapy I guess you could say. Two of the runs were early morning in sub-freezing temps but they were my 2 favorites.

The disappointment is still there, but the future is bright and thanks to some great running I am able to clearly see the goodness in front of me. I am lucky for sure.