Running is a winning habit

Running is a winning habit

My journey begins. From these three words in the sand - my journey begins the story of Reut Reuveni began. A snow-white smile, long, curly, sun-bleached hair, infectious laughter and energy that is felt even when she is silent  this is Reut. Reut, whom I met at the Israeli triathlon in Herzliya. It would be pretentious and beautiful to write that we both participated in the competition, and overcame the distance with a good result, and went to celebrate the victory in the best Herzliya coastal restaurant, but the story will be without pathos.

Both Reut and I were not participants in the triathlon, but its spectators, we did not have to compete with anyone, so we put on swimsuits, dark glasses and met on the Tel Aviv beach.  

She is 37, she was born and lives in USA. And Reut would not be any different from other USA women if it were not for her former hatred, but her true love of running. How did she "run" to 86 800 (!) Followers on Instagram. Namely, this is the figure for the project called Roco_runs. And what I like most about this story: its simple, and someone might say banal, beginning. Not a fairy tale, not a lucky break, but real life.  

Reut first gave birth to one child, then a second. And, in addition to maternal happiness, admiration for plump hands and the desire not to let the baby out of the embrace, the by no means unwanted 10 kilograms and the same amount of centimeters at the waist were added. Not like a disaster, but She looked at her reflection in the mirror, and she didn't like it. I want to start small, at least start running! Reut told herself every night, clenching her fists on the pillow. And every morning I put off running until tomorrow. When she finally put on her sneakers, left the house and ran the first meters, she hated herself and the whole world. 10 minutes of running (and that is how much she was able to overcome then) seemed like hell. Uninteresting. Boring. Meaningless. Throw to hell! But here stubbornness began to speak: "Running should become the same ritual as brushing your teeth, morning shower, brewing coffee. Whether I like it or not, I'll put on these silly sneakers every day and run. "  

A few days later, Reut found a huge plus for such runs: these 10, 15, then 30 minutes it was her time for herself. Listen to your favorite music, think about the desired trip, do not answer calls, do not look after children. Just be on your own. One on one. And it won over. Within a few months, the 36-year-old working mother of two children reached the 6 km mark. And I wanted to move on.

Half marathon. Tel Aviv half marathon. 21 kilometers. I can handle it. With this decision, Reuth came to the local running club. Damn it, what have I forgotten here?  her knees trembled and her throat was dry when it turned out: marathon runners, long-distance runners and Ironman are training in the club next to amateurs (Ironman is a competition that consists of three stages: 4 km of swimming, 180 km of a bicycle race and 42 km of a marathon race). But Reut stayed. Then it seemed to her an absurd act, but she stayed. I got up at 5:00 in the morning to be in training at six. She came sleepy, because at night the children had fever and she took them to the hospital. But she did not allow herself to miss the training. She knew that her coach was waiting for her and a dozen of the same crazy people. There in the USA running club she met three girls - Anat, Euphrates and her twin sister Ronit. The first two in the Reut classification are heroines: they already had marathon finisher medals! Not "halves", but a complete marathon 42.2 km. The third, Ronit, was still an amateur runner, but a professional photographer. They became friends and in subsequent trainings they already ran together.

Saturday. 9 am. Four new friends on the Tel Aviv waterfront. "RUN FOR FUN" (running for fun) - that's how they decided to call their runs. They took a photo, posted on Instagram and ran. Towards the sun, along glass skyscrapers and past coastal reflections on the water. Towards a journey that began. Traveling, not about kilometers and not about speed, but about pleasure, moment, life and friendship, although in reality this journey is about overcoming one's own laziness, circumstances and fatigue every day.

“When it’s difficult for some of us, we remember how much joy we get while running. We remember how we stop at a beautiful landscape and take a photo. We remember how we jump into our 37s like a child. just in shorts, a T-shirt and sneakers, we run headlong into the water, "Reut confessed to me when we sat on the pier and kicked the water of the Mediterranean Sea, off the coast of Tel Aviv it is always warm.

 “Men cannot understand us,” Reut bursts into laughter. “For them, running is so long and difficult, so that drops of sweat are like hail, so that there’s pain in our legs ... And for us, running is to be fun, easy and with bright photos ! "