Smash(ing) September

The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off.

- Gloria Steinem

Usually when people are sad, they don't do anything. They just cry over their condition. But when they get angry, they bring about a change.

 - Malcolm X

Anger is a brief madness.
- Horace, Epistles (Book 1)

Keep Calm series
Hulk Doesn't Keep Calm Hulk Smash
September
source: The Keep Calm-O-Matic

I'm sharing (my personal meditative!) cathartic quotes and the poster of the Hulk because all together, they made me laugh a liberating laugh (finally!), and I hope my fellow runners, who are currently rehabilitating from injuries will get a laugh out of them, too.

This image is also something I want to look at when I start obsessing again about my current situation.  A situation, that I can't change. 

I have been acting absurdly towards my first serious running injury.

Exaggerated, my family would definitely say, my erratic behaviour in the last weeks mirrored that of  Dr Bruce Banner and his alter-ego The Incredible Hulk, upon learning that I should not run/race, until I have lost the pain on my foot.

In my defense, this is the first time, since I begun running two years ago, that I have been injured. 

Now, with a clearer mind (after a lot of crying! haha), I realise, I have been very lucky, that it's (Morton's Neuroma) been detected at a very early stage.

Sunny smile after stormy tears.

It's been a difficult weekend. It's been an inspiring weekend. As I said, "Goodbye to August, and welcome September!", I also said, "Goodbye Berlin Marathon, and welcome a whole month worth of other adventures."

I've been inspired and motivated not only by my family, and friends but a lot of beautiful souls out there.

Meditation to quite the mind, being in motion, being active in many other different ways even without running, are just some of those things I am reminded, that I could still do.

Melancholy is incompatible with bicycling. ~James E. Starrs

“The water doesn't know how old you are.”
― Dara Torres, Age Is Just a Number: Achieve Your Dreams at Any Stage in Your Life

There are several unpublished blogs  expressing all the contradictory feelings I have had over not being able to run, not being able to fulfill the running goals I set out to do this year.

Not to mention those unpublished blogs of the crazy running months (5 half-marathons, 1 of which was a DNF, my first DNF; 1 full marathon, a 15K, a 10K, a 7K all ran between January-June 2013) , which all followed after we lost our home due to a fire that broke out above our flat.

January 2013
Egmond Half-Marathon medal

January 2013

February 2013 my first DNF race

March 2013

April 2013

May 2013

May 2013

June 2013

June 2013

Running for me is not a mere hobby.  Everything encompassing running helps me cope with my manic-depression, and live a life of quality with my family.  Yes, you could almost say, it's how I medicate myself.  It's my healthy addiction.

Since running, my head is less busy. It still is very busy! But I experience more and more pockets of serenity, sometimes catching me silently aware, that I smile and have tears in my eyes all at the same time.

Since running, my anger has lessened. I still have a lot of issues! But I experience more and more the lightness in my being, I never imagined - o nly hoped, fervently wished - I will attain.

Since running, my  perspective has widened.  I still fall into the same pattern of thinking!  But I experience more and more how I can easily welcome a new positive thought in place of the negative paralyzing ones.

Running, in short, has given birth to the person, I like.  Running has made me like myself (again).

A collage celebrating new beginnings: March 2009
My 37th birthday (20th of March, 2009), and the day we moved to Holland (9th of March).

Mijn liefste P.
My beloved by my side in the middle of running Paris Marathon, 2013.

Yes, I have to face the facts, that I will miss fulfilling running goals set this year, but I have already "won" so much more than running goals achieved in 24 months of running, and will be achieved (#positivethinking!) in the future. 

Yes, indeed, I have so many years ahead, years to have fun setting and fulfilling goals and dreams. :)

Well,since the pity party is over, let's all welcome what I know will be a smashing September! :)