I have been writing my blog for a few years now and this got me thinking back to why I started it in the first place. I started writing at a time when I had running taken away from my life. I had just found out I had stress fractures in the tibia of both my legs and it was going to be a long road to recovery. I personally feel, as soon as runners get injured, they go off the face of the earth. They post daily on social media when running and racing is going great, and reveal none of what the injured life is like. If I’m completely honest, I would rather see the hard, determination that is required when injured than only have my feed filled with people’s amazing results. Don’t get me wrong, it is great to see people running and performing so well, but that is only one side of the story. Instagram, and other social media platforms, become sites to only document the good. I felt like no one else provided an insight into what life was like as an injured runner, so I wanted to openly talk about and document it. Honesty. To me, honesty is something I live by in everything I do. Whether it’s in running, everyday life, or how I communicate with others, I want to always be my genuine, honest self. Therefore, this is why I feel the need to not hide away from revealing the difficult times in relation to running, such as injury. I appreciate that a lot of the time, people who are injured, don’t want to spend time on social media, as they don’t want to see loads of people running happily on your feed, but I think it’s important when documenting your journey to show this. I find it too much to see everything other people are doing when I am running healthily, but I still believe being honest with those who do follow you is important. This is why I chose to shut off from what others were doing, and to not spend hours scrolling through other people’s photos, but instead to use it as a tool to document what injury was like for me. How far I have come.
Something I find so powerful about having documented my thoughts and experiences through my blog, is being able to look back on it and reflect. I find it can be very easy to let myself become consumed in what I haven’t achieved and the drive of always wanting to improve and step forward, and not take the time to look back on the leaps I HAVE made. If I ask myself, what would the Hannah who wrote the first blog article say about where the Hannah of today is? If I’m completely honest, I think she wouldn’t believe where I am. From hobbling around on crutches for 3 months, followed by 6 months of zero running, before another 3 months of walk/run sessions, to representing England a year later in October 2019 for the first time and again in January 2020, I think she would be shocked. I always put a lot of pressure on myself to improve, and I think most athletes do as they want to see where their potential lies, but sometimes it is nice to be able to look back and see the progress I have made. At times, I feel we don’t give ourselves and our bodies enough credit for all they have done. They are pretty tough and work hard, even when they’re tired, to achieve some amazing things. Help others. This is the most rewarding, worthwhile aspect of writing about running and everything that comes with it. If I can achieve anything with my blog, I want to be able to help others recognise that they aren’t alone on their journey and that other people have difficulties too. I falsely believed that I was the only one with struggles, and I felt like the only person who had an injury at the time I was on crutches, but I wasn’t! Therefore, I want to help others avoid feeling how I did, by revealing the less picture perfect elements of being a runner, and writing about them! I want other runners, whether they be younger or older than me, to feel as though they can message me at anytime, about anything, even if they just want someone to chat to (because I love to chat!!). Running can be tough so why not help make it as enjoyable as possible for one another. Ultimately, I feel documenting the entire journey is such an important thing to do, not just for myself, but for others too.
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Hannah IrwinI love to run and I love to write, so I write about running! Archives
March 2023
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