Run Free

In January of this year I started running, I had ran a little previously but never consistently. I started slowly and soon was running 5 km regularly and in a few short months was happily running 10 km so I signed up for my first 10 km run.
It was in the Slieve Bloom mountains and was very hilly and tough but I was thrilled when I completed it, so me, being me, immediately began planning to do a half marathon. And then it happened....all the joy, freedom and pleasure I had been getting from running started to slowly ebb away. No run was a 'good' run, I analysed every step of each run and even the days I ran 13 and 14 km I felt I wasn't working hard enough. I go constant prompts from my Run Keeper app telling me when I needed to run and how far and so 6 weeks ago I just stopped running.
For me running was meant to be some 'me' time, some head space from a busy family and work life where clock watching is ever present and yet here I was clock watching again, and that is the main reason I stopped.
I missed it though, the great feeling you get after a long run. so this morning when a dog barking woke me at 5.30 instead of turning over and going back to sleep, I got up, put on my running gear, left all tracking devices/phones/electronic instruments behind and just ran. I admired the beautiful views of the sun drenched Slieve Blooms, I smelt the newly cut hay and I loved every second of it.
This is how I will run from now!!