From hate to love — running is my passion

In high school, I quit the soccer team because I hated running.

Perhaps the title of this blog gave it away, but things have changed.

I would never have believed I would become a runner. I always thought a runner was somebody who eagerly bounced out of bed at 4:30 a.m., threw on his/her running shoes and skipped out the door, grinning in anticipation of the upcoming 10-mile jog.

I thought these people were all designed to run and that it came easy. I thought these people would rather run than do anything else in the world. I thought these people were crazy.

Now, at age 28, I have one marathon, three half marathons, two 15Ks and a handful of both 10Ks and 5Ks under my belt, and many more races on the way. I am currently training for the Chicago Marathon with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s Team in Training.

It never occurred to me that some people might actually have to work to become a runner. I learned that I am definitely not the runner that I mentioned above. There are days that I get really excited about running, but there are also days that I absolutely dread running. And I can honestly say that I have never set the alarm for a 4:30 a.m. run.

I am, by no means, an expert. I took to treadmill running during college in a blatant effort to avoid the “freshman 15” and actually began to love running. If you were to tell this to my 17-year-old self, you would have been laughed at, probably followed with an exaggerated eye roll and a “whatever.” Yes, I was that girl.  

My first race was in 2005, when my boyfriend, Terry, convinced me to run the Bolder Boulder 10K with him. I agreed to do the race, not even batting an eyelash about the course’s elevation, which reaches nearly 5,400 feet.

We finished the race at 57:59. I didn’t really understand — or care about for that matter — the hype that surrounded race times. For me, the desire to finish a race in a decent time has only recently surpassed the desire to finish the race period. Now, I’m in awe of the elite runners, of which many can finish a 10K in a half an hour without even having to spend the rest of the day in the medical tent.

I wouldn’t say I was hooked right away. I had a great time at the race and vowed to run it again the following year, which was very convenient since we moved to Boulder in July 2005.

Since then, I have run five more 10Ks — four of which were Bolder Boulders, I just love that race! My PR — runner’s jargon for personal record — not surprisingly, came from my only 10K at sea level, the 2009 Morton Pumpkin Festival 10K. FYI, the average elevation in Morton is about 720 feet. Perhaps I should try running more 10Ks at sea level.

Along with training for whatever looms on my race calendar, I am continuously training for the craziest race yet — motherhood. It’s by far, the best job I’ve ever had! My son Luke is 4. He is tons of fun, but tends to cut into my training schedule a bit. I learned so much about juggling my son, my job and my training schedule while training for my first marathon, P.F. Chang’s Arizona Rock N Roll Marathon, which I ran in 4:34:14 in January.

The most important thing I learned is not to sweat it if I can’t get all of my runs in, but I still struggle with that. Luke’s father — still my boyfriend, six years later — is a firefighter who has a few months left in paramedic school. He is an amazing father, but needless to say, his schedule takes him away from us often. Thanks to his few and far between days off, grandma and grandpa, friends and the daycare at Gold’s Gym I get the majority of my training runs in.

I have come to depend on running in an attempt to maintain some sort of sanity in my crazy life — crazy yes, but I wouldn’t change a thing! My runs are reserved as my “me time.” When I miss a run or two, I tend to get a bit cranky. When life gets in the way and the juggling act seems to be too much to handle, you can bet I’ll have plenty to say about it!

Holly Richrath is a reporter at TimesNewspapers. She shares the juggling act that is her life and her quest for sanity in her blog “Mom on the Run.” E-mail her at hrichrath@timestoday.com.