Support Person: Support System

     These last couple weeks my high school sweetheart from Washington has came out to visit my family and I in Pennsylvania for the summer. He is a very active person; a backpacking, fly fishing, weightlifting machine and he took it upon himself to be my personal trainer this last month. Lately I've just been doing the bare minimum when it comes to working out. I do my hip and glute exercises, I lift on my upper body, I do some core and I frustratingly try to get out and run even though my leg still hurts sometimes. Getting back in shape is not fun. Getting back into running shape is a lot worse.
     The sad truth is that sometimes people will be shady with you. It's hard to accept but sometimes it's got to happen. People you love will trick you into doing things you may not have planned on doing yourself. The first week Kyle was here he took me to a nice scenic outlook on top of Mt. Pocono where I live. I was excited! The woods were beautiful and we could park the car right next to the outlook so I didn't have to do any hard hiking, it was great! We walked around and I even took some pictures of the beautiful mountain pass and scenery. He mentioned going on a nice little hike. Feeling up to it I of course agreed! Hiking is something we love to do together and we actually went on a hike for our first date. What could possibly go wrong?
     Two hours later I was bum scooting my way down steep trails and crawling my way up the mountain trying to keep up with my boyfriend who always seemed to be hiking just a little out of my reach. I had to stop and take Tylenol, laying in the dirt in the middle of the trail. Every seven minutes or so I would wipe my face with my sweat drenched shirt and ask, "How much farther?" To which Kyle would reply, "Just a little bit longer." By the time we got back to the parking lot I was sore, my legs were shaking, and I was exhausted. Later that night over dinner after some shopping Kyle told me that the hike was only 3 miles and that he was proud of me for going out there and doing it because "you're going to school to be a runner, not a cheerleader." All teasing aside, that is true. If I want to succeed as a colligate runner, I need to start behaving more like one, my leg is done being injured, it just needs to get strong again.

    Later that week Kyle laced up his Nikes, gave me that mischievous grin of his, and told me he was going out for a run. He hates running. Not wanting to be shown up I reluctantly laced up my own shoes and headed out the door. What happened next was the most beautiful experience. Obviously Kyle left me in the dust, but I ran completely pain free for 20 minutes. That twenty minutes of running was all it took. I confess I even shed a few happy tears or two. For the first time since my injury I went running for myself. Not for my coach, not to meet any expectations, not to please my teammates. I went running for myself and it was so soul touching.
     Kyle continued to run with me throughout his whole visit. He even took me out to the park in the evening so that I could watch the fireflies while running together on the trails. It was slow moving and I was scared at first. Coming back from a huge injury like a fractured leg makes you question your bodies ability a little bit. But Kyle knew. He knew that all it would take was a playful shove in the right direction to get me up and running again.
     A couple days before he flew back to Washington we decided to go hiking in New Jersey. We had planned before hand to only hike a maximum of 3.5 miles to keep it comfortable. As per usual Kyle brought the map and planned the route. We saw some gorgeous waterfalls and beautiful trees the moment we stepped on the trail. About fifteen minutes into the hike it started to gradually get steeper. I kept quiet and worked harder to keep up with him.  I wore my GPS watch this time just in case Kyle tried to pull something sneaky like the last hike.
     Five miles into the trail we were scrambling up a mountain side with no where to turn around. I had drank almost all of our water, needed to take a break every 5 minutes or so to rub my sore legs, and was popping extra strength Tylenol like candy. I finally stopped and google mapped where we were. To my dismay we were barely even reaching the halfway mark. I had been conned! My promised 3 mile hike had turned into 9.5 miles of steep rocky hiking. My legs hurt so bad and I was exhausted. When we finally got to the top of the trail Kyle gave me a kiss, some cranberry trail mix, and a pat on the bum for good work. He apologized for being sneaky but then said he was so proud
of me for sticking to it. The rest of the hike was smooth sailing from there. After the Tylenol kicked in when we finally reached the top I had the time of my life hiking with Kyle and talking with him on the trail.

      I think sometimes we get stuck in a box. We get too comfortable with our lack of improvement and become too scared to push ourselves, especially coming back from an injury. I'm lucky to have Kyle who knows me so well. He knew it was going to take a little shove in the right direction to get me to have the confidence in myself as an athlete again. I didn't even think that I would be healthy enough to hike 9.5 miles by the end of this summer. If I would have known that was the plan a couple days ago I don't think I would've followed through. But that's the amazing thing about having a support person. Kyle would do anything to see me accomplish my goals and dreams. He knew it was going to take a couple hard hikes and some longer runs to get me feeling myself again, even if that meant being shady about how far we were hiking. I'm going into the rest of this summer with a new found determination to push myself harder than before and stop being scared of challenging my body, because in the end, there is no finish line. I'm pretty darn lucky to have a best friend who's willing to go the extra mile to see me succeed. I absolutely love running and I for sure do love my Kyle guy!