By Dr. Kaye Whitehead
Fitness, like life, is not about how much you can lift or run or do today, but about becoming a little bit stronger, maybe even a little faster every day.
The week after I dropped my son at college, I started working out with Coach Chauncey twice a week. It was hard, and it was painful. I was 35 pounds heavier, and every move, though simple, hurt.
I started at 5:30 a.m. and then moved it back to 4:30 a.m. I wanted to be there when the world was still sleeping, and everything around you was quiet and still. Nobody calls you at 4:30. Nobody needs anything. Nobody is looking for you. At 4:30, it is just my coach and me.
I also started walking every Sunday morning with Chauncey’s Angels and Champions, and soon, two days a week of working out became three, and three miles of walking became eight.
Over the past year, I have walked and completed a 5k, a 10k, and a half marathon. So, coach kept raising the bar, and in August he challenged to train and run the Dreaded Druid Hills 10k. Even though we walked the Druid Hills– I had never run them.
He trained me, and when we finished that race –successfully– he turned our attention to the Baltimore Marathon MoronThon, which is two races, the 5K and the Half Marathon, in one day.
I have always wanted to be a consistent runner: to go out and hit the runner’s high and blow through 10-12 mile runs with little effort. Some days when I am out running, I am being chased by who I used to be. I have doubts. I feel my aches and pains. I “feel” my age, and then I start to talk myself out of finishing my run. On those days, I think about what my coach taught me about “narrow focus,” or the art of blocking out everything around me and focusing on exactly what I am doing in the “now.”
It is a metacognitive activity:
- I focus on quieting my breathing, listening to my body (am I really hurt, or am I just telling myself), and reminding myself that I am stronger than this run.
- I begin to narrow things down and tell myself that I am not running against anyone but the me sitting on the couch, and I am already beating her, so even if I stop and walk, I have not lost because I have already won.
- I remind myself of who I used to be and who I am becoming.
- My Nana said that after a woman turns 40, she should routinely stand in front of the mirror and thank her body for getting this far along the path. So I start thanking my legs for moving and thanking my lungs for the deep breaths. I go through this checklist in my mind, and this gratitude moment helps me keep moving forward. Finally, I make a decision to go big; to stop being conservative, to stop doubting myself. I look for the next marker –a stop sign, a brown house–and challenge myself to run a little bit faster to get there.
I think about how the choices I am making on the run will be celebrated by the person I am becoming.
Coach Chauncey and I finished the BaltiMoron much faster than we had anticipated: we completed the 5K in 34:21 and the Half Marathon in 2:41:45. I ran faster and harder than I could have imagined at this time last year. I ended by crossing the finish line, head up, shoulders back, running as fast as I could to meet the person who I was going to be on the other side of the line.
Karsonya Wise Whitehead (todaywithdrkaye@gmail.com; Twitter: @kayewhitehead) is the Founding Director of The Karson Institute for Race, Peace, & Social Justice at Loyola University Maryland and the 2021 Edward R. Murrow Regional Award- winning radio host of “Today With Dr. Kaye” on WEAA 88.9 FM. She is a novice runner and lives in Baltimore with her husband and their dog.
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