I’ve always blogged about how much I love running, which is exactly why I thought I would use this one to do the exact opposite. Instead of telling you how much I love the way my legs stride down the hills I have earned, seeing the shocked faces of drivers and passengers in their stationary cars as I sprint down the road, I choose to make myself vulnerable.
There has never been a time I have liked my running style. In fact, I would go as far to say that I hate it. Yep, I hate the way my legs move. Big deal. Why am I telling you this? I’m telling you this in case you’re a runner of any level. If you don’t like your running style, I’m here to tell you that I used to feel exactly the same, but you shouldn’t.
The first time I realised “I hate my running style” was in the gym. This was a few years ago now that I remember running on those plastic machines of hell I believe are known as ‘treadmills’.
Wonky Legs
After tapping the ‘increase speed’ button and forcing my legs to transition from walking to running, that was when I noticed it. A mirror filled the wall opposite me, where you could just make out my outward swinging legs from around the legs of the conveyor belt machine.
Naturally, the first thing I did was glance at my neighbour runners, whose legs were obviously in my eyes in perfect shape and swing. That was my last visit to that gym for a while.
Gym visits then involved failed attempts to alter the swinging of my legs so that they were straight and forward facing. This was soon followed by feeling totally disheartened which resulted in core and bike exercises only. Now, I realise, what a shame.
Gutted
Why was I disheartened I hear you ask? Because I was the black sheep of the treadmill line up. No other runner’s legs swung outwards, so why were mine skewed? I didn’t know, but I spent days, weeks, months even, beating myself up about it.
Metaphorically running myself into the ground about how “you’ll never be a proper runner now Kate” because, I told myself, “you’re running wrong”. If you’ve ever had this thought, that you’re running wrong, please keep reading.
I had stopped going to the gym, cancelled my membership, and started on-road running instead. I thought this would be easier. In a way it was, because I couldn’t be judged by other runners alongside me.
There wasn’t any so this was okay. It was just me, my running gear and the world and this was somehow a more empowering thought than being in a gym full of Nike obsessed runners. But the gym has people in it, that was your motivation half of the time whether you knew it or not.
Were things about to change?
Then one day, I got a boyfriend who liked running too. Perfect, I thought. We could run together and all can be right with my running relationship again. Surprise surprise, this was not the case.
He asked to go for a run together and my instinct gut feeling was to decline, which I did politely. Confused at the uncertainty in me, I just couldn’t understand why I didn’t want to run with my new partner. It should have been the perfect situation.
But, I realised that I was that embarrassed of my running style I didn’t want anyone to see it. I battled with the thought again and again after declining my partner a run two or three times, but I was fighting a losing battle.
Tackling my problem, best foot forward
Soon enough, the conversation surfaced. I explained how I hated my running style. I learnt one of the biggest lessons any runner can learn. Your running style isn’t a problem.
Do your shoulders tense up towards your neck? Do your feet stick overly outwards? Do your elbows leave a gap between your body or maybe they stick in more than usual touching your hip?
If you answered yes to any or all of those questions, I need to tell you that your running style is absolutely fine. Too many magazines, blogs and articles oh so righteously paint literal pictures that instruct us how to run, just like the ones below.
I said “no” to magazine pressure
But let me ask you this, magazine world. When you run, what happens is all about that middle word: You. It is YOUR body moving how it wants to move. Your legs moving the way they do, your elbows falling the way they do, your feet positioned how they are. If you change how you run, you’re not running like you.
No one else in the world runs like you and that is not something to be ashamed of. Be proud of it, no, really. It’s your very own personal stamp, reminding the world who you are and that you’re here, to be you, not any other mediocre ordinary runner.
The world needs your enthusiasm. It needs your running story, your running quirks, habits, motivation. So, kick that defeating voice out of your head and run like you were born to.
Tom still tells me that “you shouldn’t be ashamed of your running style. You enjoy running and shouldn’t be ashamed of how you run you could easily be sitting at home on the sofa eating junk food and watching TV but you’re focusing on your health and fitness”.
Enjoy the run and embrace your running style as it makes you you! I even remember the first few times we went running, together… I made him run in front of me because he couldn’t see my out of sync legs that way.
I’d get irritated and embarrassed every time he looked over his shoulder which made me try and temporarily ‘fix’ my style, even though he was looking back to tell me the next turn. I didn’t know where I was going and he was merely telling me. It was, literally and metaphorically, a step in the right direction.
Moral of the story
So, there you have it. It’s all rainbows, sunny days and easy breathing for you runners now, right? Wrong. There’s going to be days where you catch yourself in a shop window, like I do every time I do that 4 mile route.
But there’s going to be days where running brings out the best in you, and hey, who’s to say that’s the not same run? When you see those awkward elbows or angled legs, don’t see awkward elbows or angled legs. See you. Wonderful, motivated, healthy you.
