Not a Runner...

By Rachael W

I was always athletic, (swim team in high school and a cheerleader for 10 years) but NEVER a runner. In fact, I was the person that would rather skip school on the day we had to run the mile in PE than actually run it! Ha! But, after 4 kids and neglecting my own health for theirs, I was out of shape to say the least. 

When we moved to NC, I joined a gym.  A gym that I used only a handful of times because my youngest child would refuse to stay in the daycare.  So, I remained out of shape; my former self just a whisper of a memory. 

Then, my son decided to join the STRIDE Program to run a 5K with his school in May of 2017.  He was going to need a buddy to run it with him, so I had planned on sending my husband. You know, the Marine that could run 3 miles in his sleep. But it was my neighbor (who IS a runner) who decided she was going to do it with her son and somehow she talked me into doing the same. It was hard. I didn't know what I was doing, and at that point I could not complete a mile without stopping, but I ran a 5K! Well, I didn’t exactly “run” it, but I finished it (in 37 minutes) and I swore that I'd NEVER run again! 

5K... Check!

When I posted my pictures to Facebook I had several friends comment that I should join Stroller Warriors®.  One was a friend with the Camp Pendleton chapter and another, a former Lejeune chapter member, who had since moved to Parris Island. I thought they were crazy but I went ahead and joined the group page. (Why did a non-runner, that never wanted to run again, join a RUNNING CLUB? Well, because her youngest child refused to be out of her sight and after trying to drop her off at the gym daycare for a year and a half only to have her scream for 15 minutes straight, ending with us having to leave the gym before my workout even began.) After a week of thinking on it, I decided to go to a workout. At that point I figured I had nothing to lose, at least I could walk and it was something I could do WITH my then almost 2 year old instead of sticking her in the gym daycare to scream. 

So I joined this running club, even though I wasn’t a runner and I hated running, but it wasn’t just ANY running club, it was Stroller Warriors, a running club for military spouses and it was unlike any other group I’d ever belonged to. I went to my first workout and my little one enjoyed the "friends" SO much. The kids were all immediate friends and loved getting together at the park after our runs, while the adults enjoyed the conversations after the workout. The club itself was full of encouraging friends that would make you believe you could do anything... even run a half marathon!

I kept going to the workouts, kept making friends, and kept running. Little by little I could run a little more and a little more. I could complete a mile without stopping and then two and then three and before you knew it I was signing up for races and the women of Stroller Warriors were encouraging me the whole way!

As a member of Stroller Warriors® I found myself. 

That whisper of a memory of the competitive athlete I once was - was no longer a whisper. In 2018 I became a chapter workout assistant and trained for and ran my first half marathon (although the original race that I was going to run - and had trained for - was cancelled due to Hurricane Florence, I was able to run a half with a group of warriors in December) and I am now training for my first marathon in 2019!

I am not exaggerating when I say that the Stroller Warriors Running Club changed my life - it has led me to a wonderful tribe in a place that is so far away from my own family, and pushed me to do hard things that I never thought I could do! 

You might think that you can’t do something that is hard, heck you might not even WANT to do something that is hard, but I promise, once you do, it will be life changing. 

I was not a runner... but I became one.