Runners High? More like Runners BYE
Let’s run it back to the 7th grade. I joined the track and field team and immediately realised I hated running and 100/200 meter sprints were the only acceptable waves for me because they got over the quickest. But track training still involved "long distance" runs too, and I knew in my bones that I should’ve just stuck to basketball. My track career both started and ended in 7th grade.
Fast forward to high school, I’m on varsity basketball which was only tolerable because running was disguised as “playing,” and I genuinely enjoyed the sport, until I stopped competitive sports entirely.
In college I discovered lifting, which I loved. Heavy weights, progressive overload, and feeling so freaking strong were so my thing. Cardio on the other hand? I did that once a week on the elliptical just to check a box to say "you know what? I did it." Life was balanced. Sort of.
But then the boredom came to me, along with the TikToks of and the run clubs and Hyrox athletes. Everyone was running, everyone was glowing and everyone seemed to have hamstrings carved from stone. Meanwhile, I was well into lifting and still waiting for mine to make an appearance.
So I gave in and tried one run. It sucked by the way. I sucked. It was giving the wolf from the Three Little Pigs- huffing, puffing, tomato faced, hair shaped like a cloud. You’d think it was some real next level running but guys but it wasn’t even average, it was BEYOND embarrassing. Runner’s high? More like runner bye.
But the lifting stagnancy was louder than the misery. I was annoyed. I am 21. I thought I was fit.
What do you MEAN my legs can lift over 100kgs but they can’t carry me for a few kilometers?
It was getting personal.
Naturally, I spiralled into a research hole for the perfect running shoes. But once I got my sexy new Asics, I decided to go in with zero planning. I needed to stop coming up with excuses on why I cant start yet. I didn’t need the “perfect program” to get started. So I just ran. And then I walked and ran again. Turns out that’s called interval training lol, I thought I just looked stupid but I’m glad theres a professional name for it.
I picked up random TikTok tips about posture, arm swing, cadence, playlists with beats to match pace and some of them worked while others didn’t. But when they did, it felt like someone was slowly unblocking my windpipe and I was BREATHING. Suddenly I could run through two songs and then three and then four. My progress wasn’t (and still isn’t) measured in kilometers or pace, it was measured in how many songs I could stay in motion for. Somewhere along the way, I started liking it?
Not just after the run. DURING. There’s something strangely euphoric about realizing I’m still going (sometimes on autopilot) and that I’m ever so slightly better than last week. It was like I was rebuilding my lungs and rebooting my heart. Go figure it’s called cardio for a reason but still an epiphany for me oops.
Dont be mistaken I still can’t run a 5K without stopping And I am still VERYYY average. But I get why people do this now. I get the high.
It spices up my workouts and it makes me feel like I’ve got my life together, especially when I’m out there early morning with all the other serious looking runners in their techy running gear looking like I too am going on “a quick run before work.”
The most important part of all of this is that I’m 99% sure I saw the faint outline of a hamstring show up on my leg.
Now while I’m scared it’s gone every day when I wake up, it’s still my greatest motivator right now.
Running is still hard and I still look utterly dishevelled every time. But going from dreading it to genuinely looking forward to it has been one of the most unexpectedly fulfilling parts of my routine. One I've been most proud of recently.
