Picky and Healthy

We have a blog at work. Have I mentioned that here? About 15 of us have a rotating schedule and someone blogs once per day. I’ve written about recipes I’ve made, the OSCARs, and a cooking lessons we received from one of the VPs at the office.

For today’s work blog post I wrote about running. And how running compares to work. I actually wrote a much longer post but decided it was too personal and maybe too self-congratulatory to share with my entire office. So I’m posting it here. The only part of the below that appears on the work blog is the introduction and the color copier part.

About a year ago I took up running. I’d gone through elliptical, pilates, yoga, even running phases before, but running was always something special to me. I watched runners in the park and on the streets with envy—I wanted to do what they were doing. But then I would try and my shins would hurt, my Achilles tendonitis would act up, or I would get winded and discouraged and give up.

But then things changed, I started slowly, I ran with a friend, and sure enough, even though there was some shin pain and muscle pain and allergies from running in the park in the spring, I could run farther and farther and my love of running grew and grew.

During the last year I’ve come to realize that running often mirrors work situations, has taught me valuable lessons about work and life, and has given me a satisfaction I can’t find elsewhere. Here are some examples:

First, the similar situation: running injuries and color printer injuries.

(Note: my office has pretty much the WORST color printers ever, they’re constantly breaking, you’re lucky if you can print a few pages at a time. Part of my job involves printing thousands (literally) of pages of sales materials. On these color printers. It’s rough.)

Running: Hmm, there’s a little pain in my ankle, maybe if I ignore it or just put some ice on it it will go away. Meanwhile mentally panic telling myself I will never run again.
Color Printer: Hmm, a jam, I can’t find the paper, maybe if I open and close enough doors it will just go away. Mentally panic about how I will finish all my printing in time.

Running: Well, the swelling has gotten worse; I guess I should go to the doctor. Pity begins, why is this happening to me? How come so many other people can run without pain?
Color Printer: Well, it keeps jamming; I guess it’s time to call the repair guy. Pity begins, why can’t the stupid machine just cooperate? I wonder if all color printers are all like this.

Running: Doctor treats me like a drug addict the moment I say I’m a runner, says not to run for a while, tells me to go to useless physical therapy twice per week.
Color Printer: Repair guy looks at the color printer, one of the guys spends a few useless hours in there taking it apart, leaves, but it still doesn’t work.

Running: Waste time and money on physical therapy that doesn’t really do much. Lose precious running time.
Color Printer: Waste time sending jobs to the color printer and walking over to see if it’s working yet. Lose precious printing time as sales calls grow closer and closer.

Running: Finish physical therapy 6 weeks later in the same place where I started, decide this a load of crap, devise a plan to fix my own ankle. Start running again and be happy.
Color Printer: (Ok, similarities don’t apply here although there was one time where I fixed it myself after the repair men came). Approximately 6 weeks later the part that is apparently more precious than gold arrives and I can then continue on with my color printing.

Next, what I’ve learned from running that’s given me perspective at work and in the rest of my life.

Running has taught me not to compare myself with others. No matter how much confidence we have I think that everyone falls for the trap of comparing what they have, whether it’s intellectually, physically, or materialistically, with what others have. For me, running is about how well I do.

I will probably never win a race, but that’s ok, I’ve won the race if I go out there and try my hardest. I used to be bothered by people who would pace me in the park or get on a treadmill next to me, look over at me, seem to think, “Oh that chubby girl has been running at 6.5mph for a while, I bet I can run faster than she can.” But you know what? It says more about them than it does about me. And I hope that person who paces me runs the fastest they’ve ever run and the treadmill neighbor cranks their run out at 8.5mph because they’ve worked their butt off to get there.

Finally, what running has given me:

I’m a pretty goal-oriented person (my New Year’s resolutions are a 5-page Word document planned out in the SMART method) and who likes to be in control, running is perfect. I could be the absolute best sales person ever but there are a million factors that could lead me not to be able to reach my goals. Same for our great designers here, someone could design what they feel is the best and strongest cover, but it’s subjective; it can be rejected by the author or someone in-house.

Running is not subjective. Achieving my goals in running is solely up to me. I wanted to run a 5k; I did it. I wanted to run the entire loop around Prospect Park; I did it. I wanted to run a 5k in under 30 minutes; I did it. I wanted to run a half marathon; I did it. And all of those achievements are because of the hard work that I put in. However, I am lucky enough to be surrounded by great friends and family who are either great actors or genuinely enjoy my running stories.

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I’ll let you know what the work reaction is. I had one person read it and she really enjoyed it.

And, in case anyone was wondering, despite having an appointment my mother didn’t go to the doctor on Tuesday. Not sure why. She was being cagey on the phone last night. She has another appointment in two weeks, hopefully she will go to that one.