Jenna’s running story

We all have a reason we run and a story to tell.

This week’s blog is about the story of a young runner’s struggle with an anxiety disorder, weight, mental struggle and the beginning of a running adventure.

Jenna
Jenna is a 31-year-old runner who calls Mississauga, Ont., home but lives in Toronto where she works as the community outreach  and communications coordinator at Canada Running Series, the organizers of the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon. Jenna has two younger sisters and lives with her boyfriend. But Jenna has not always been a runner.

Jenna began running in 2010 after her doctor told her she should lose weight.

“At that time I weighed over 200 pounds and was suffering from severe generalized anxiety disorder and depression. I had to leave university, return home and couldn’t leave my house for about a year.”

After getting the prescription to lose weight, she started to run/walk with her younger sister along a local trail. At first it was 30 seconds of running followed by walking. Motivated and fighting to get healthy, the runs got longer and in 2012 the sisters completed the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Half-Marathon together.

Jenna has continued to run and race. Her most memorable was bettering her half-marathon time with the help of her boyfriend, Nick.

How has running affected your struggle with anxiety and depression?

Running has helped tremendously with keeping anxiety and depression at bay. I have gone from experiencing daily panic attacks to leading a relatively anxiety-free life in the course of about five years. In addition to being a great physical outlet for stress-relief and helping me to keep my body at a healthy weight, running has introduced me to some of the most amazing people I know today. I have met so many other runners who have had similar struggles to mine and we all credit running with helping to bring us out of some very dark places. I don’t know who I’d be today if I wasn’t part of this community. I owe so much to this sport.

What keeps you running and what do you like most about it?

I keep running because I never want to stop chasing my personal bests. Over the past year I have been working with a coach and I have seen huge gains in my performance and in my confidence as an athlete. I know my fastest times and my best races are still ahead of me and I am so excited to wake up every morning to put in the work that will help me become the best that I can be. There’s nothing quite like the feeling of crossing the finish line of a race completely spent, cursing and on the verge of collapsing, knowing that you’ve given it your all and you’ve left everything out on the course. It’s a magical thing. Painful, but completely magical and it’s a feeling I never want to stop chasing.

What race plans do you have for 2015?

This year started off with some longer distance races, but for the remainder of 2015 I am focusing on shorter distances like 5K and 10K and working on my speed. I have the IronGirl sprint triathlon coming up in August as well as the Toronto Women’s 5K where I hope to run a sub-24 minute time. In the fall I will probably do another sprint triathlon as well as a 10K race where I hope to finally get a sub-50-minute time. I never ran a 5K race until this year, but I immediately fell in love with them and am having such a good (and sweaty!) time focusing on speed work at my local track.

You can also follow Jenna and her running journey on her blog.

Do you have a running story to share?
runningwriter@hotmail.com

See you on the roads or in the blogosphere.
You can also catch me on Twitter @NoelPaine or on my personal blog.