Square Runners: Heather's Story

By Heather Adams

Let me be honest: I’ve never liked running. I’ve never been a strong runner and have always cursed my short legs for making me work twice as hard at it. I’ve always been an active person, though. I ran my first 5k in the sixth grade, constantly ran for high school sports, and would put 50 to 60 miserable miles on my feet every week for crew in college.

While training during my second season as a Division I NCAA athlete, I sustained a few minor injuries that, when combined, marked the end of my collegiate career as a rower. It was so bad that on most mornings when I got out of bed my legs would just collapse under me. If I couldn't train, I couldn’t be on the team, and that hurt. I’d lost my identity as an athlete. I got depressed and began to gain weight. 

Fast forward 10 years: I was out of school, had established my career, relocated to Pittsburgh and found a great group of people to call my friends; but I continued to gain weight. I had never been a dainty girl but the years had not been kind to my figure and I was now pushing 200 pounds. 

My physician told me not to run, so for three years I lifted weights, walked, and biked. When nothing seemed to be working I paid a lot to have everything checked—my blood, my organs, my insides, my outsides. According to my doctor, I was extremely healthy and just confusingly unable to lose weight. 

In the end, everyone I turned to gave up: trainers, nutritionists, and specialists alike. Reaching the end of my rope and against my doctor’s wishes, I spent a year training for and running in a series of five team triathlon adventure races with my best friend. We ended up racing somewhere in the neighborhood of 125 miles by foot/bike/canoe with a dash of swimming. We placed second in the women’s division, and I had lost 15 pounds, but at the end of the series it pained me to walk. 

I found out that not only had my weight made running hard on my knees, but it caused a stress fracture in my foot and a hernia that burned with the fire of a thousand suns and fired up when ever I attempted to move at any pace faster than a crawl! Then, my race partner moved to Chicago. This marked the last person in a group of very active friends to leave the area and again I felt alone.

Then, approached me to help jump start his brain child, and I finally got on the right track. When I started with run club on that first evening in August, I ran a 14-minute mile and the best I could push myself to do at that point for a 5K was about 48 minutes. I weighed more than 200 pounds, was in pain by the end of a two-mile run, and hated every minute of all of it! I now can run mile in 8:26 on a fast day and can run a 5K in 31. I currently weigh 171 pounds. I’ve dropped 2 pants sizes, have lost a total of 31 pounds, and can run a steady 4/5 miles pain free! 

There was an element I was unknowingly missing from all other workouts: laughter, a very pressure-free and light hearted attitude and a healthy amount of high-fiving! Run club has become more than the measure of sleeping two hours less in the morning, or cutting my Saturday night a few beers shorter than normal, or blocking off Thursdays after work.  It has become a group of people whom I get excited to see, that I love to give and receive encouragement from, and who don't judge my skill level. They help me solve and push past my training issues. 

I think it’s all about balance. One at night here, a morning there, and one on the weekend. Before you know it, it is part of your routine! I love that I am held accountable if I say I am going to but don't show up. No one is going to chase me down and flog me, but at least half a dozen will ask me where I was, and if I got my run in. 

I am blessed to have found the club. I am blessed that there are people waiting to high five me when I finish a run.  And thanks to the Square Run Club dare I say it: I like running! Just kidding, still don’t like it…That’s a stretch, but I do look forward to going running and seeing my friends!