Exercise Girl

by Shelby Lundin Griffis

Have you ever seen the Disney film ‘Inside Out’?

Oh, you don’t have an insane child that you try and keep calm in front of a TV?  Well then, let me cliff note it for you: the film basically shows you the brain of a kid growing up and how it reacts to the struggles of a child - but instead of neurons or whatever is really up there - it is little people.  One of them is the joy person (her name is Joy, how cute is that) and she controls her happiness, there is sorrow, anger (my fave because he is hilarious) and so on…you get the idea. 

Now you are asking…oh sheesh…Shelby definitely wrote this…how in the hell does this relate to running?

I. AM. GETTING. THERE.

It’s like you people don’t know me or something.

So this Saturday, with the run club, was my first day back doing any exercise since doing the Space Coast Half Marathon.  It had almost been two months and this is how my run went - 

I woke up to my child sleeping on my face, so I was happy to get moving because I hadn’t slept much anyway.  I decided this day to run to run club because: a. I just ran a half marathon so I’m freaking healthy and b. it seemed like a lazy thing to drive there since it was only a mile away.  

Before I go on - can we take a quick moment to talk about both of those reasons???  First, I ran said half marathon almost two months ago and second, a mile drive is one less mile I have to run.  So looking back, neither of these reasons were very valid.  

Anyway, I digress…again…

So I get up, get dressed, and head out of the house.  It is cool outside and my heart soars because I know this is going to be a fantastic run which will lead to a fantastic day! I even pictured my Happy Girl in my brain jumping up out of bed and yelling, “Stay away you other emotions - it’s ALL me today!”

I started running and, buoyed by the cool weather and my Happy Girl, I even sped my starting pace up a bit. 

And that’s when it happened.

My legs started to tingle, then it spread all over my body and everything soon started itching too.  I VAGUELY remembered this feeling from years ago when I first started exercising and this is how I pictured my brain at that moment:

Happy Girl <bounds out of bed>: “Stay away you other emotions - it's all….OH SHIT!!!!  She’s MOVING!   

Where is Exercise Girl?  SLEEPING?? Wake that bitch up!!!  Shelby is RUNNING!  
NOOO!   Don’t wake up Tingly Girl!  Oh shit!  Now everything is tingling…she’s going to think she’s having a stroke!  

CRAAAAP!!!!  Not Itchy Girl either!  Now she thinks she’s having a stroke and worried about the dogs having fleas!  

EXERCISE GIRL!  Wake up EXERCISE GIRL!  This is a mess!  We will never get out of here alive!”

Meanwhile, Exercise Girl is snoring in the corner because she hasn’t been used in a minute.  

After full chaos, and I mean full chaos, Exercise Girl finally wakes up and when I hit ¾ mile, the stroke subsides and my fear of fleas begins to recede, and I end up having a nice run with my favorite people.  

So, this is all to prove to you - ignore your brain for a while, sometimes you just have to wake up your Exercise person in your brain before it all starts to feel right. 

Stay tuned for next week’s episode where you will get to meet the one I really have a love/hate relationship with - Sore Girl.