Endorphin, where are you?

“CONGRATULATIONS”, “you made it!”; these are some of the things I heard when I finished my 5K last weekend. These beautiful words are only sometimes associated with me, however it was good to hear them in real life for once, instead of in a dream. I am one of those persons that constantly think about accomplishing several tasks each day. For example, finishing my homework, cleaning my room and overall just the regular stuff. However, I’m also the kind of person that is a professional in procrastinating. I can easily say it is my one talent that I dare to share with everyone. Nevertheless, last weekend I finally exchanged my procrastination talent with one that is very rare: perseverance.

Anyways, last weekend I decided to run a 5K. I am not really the runner-type; however I did try to run a few times last year. The only positive prospect was my brand new running shoes, which were pink of course ;) I started the race with optimism; however, It didn’t take long before my optimism had left me, and my beautiful running shoes, all alone. The only thing pushing me forward was the fact that my sister and other family members were far ahead and I was determined not to finish last. Besides, I was listening to a pretty exciting song. 

When I was half way, and far behind my friends, I tried running faster, but my mind began to understand that my body wasn’t trained for such a physical challenge. But also a very funny thing happened. I started to enjoy running. This may sound a bit contradictory towards my feelings in the beginning, and I know that, but something in my mind just changed. I started singing along with my songs and everything seemed much brighter and more beautiful. I think the hormone “endorphin” started playing a role, because I felt really good actually! Now that I was running in a rather slow and not so challenging pace I could focus on the finish, which wasn’t as far as I thought. Just kidding, the finish seemed further away than ever and my perseverance wasn’t to be found anywhere.

However, the moment finally came and with a huge smile I finished in front of a crowd that was screaming “congratulations!” and “you made it!”. I must tell you that all of my family members finished earlier than me but at that moment I didn’t mind anymore because the only thing I wanted to do was drink a lot of water. As a conclusion I can tell you that is was a fun experience, however I still love the feeling of accomplishment when eating cookies and watching movies all day long much more, than the exhaustion I felt after I had finished!