On being an "Athlete"

Growing up, I was never active.  I was the fat kid.  I was incredibly self-conscious about it too and was constantly teased about it.  Then as I grew up, I lost the weight in middle school, gained some back during the first year of high school and then lost it again.  Then I lost more my freshman year of college because of just walking to get everywhere.  Then after some particularly stressful events and medications I was on during my sophomore year, I gained a lot and ballooned to 200lbs over about 6 months and just couldn't get rid of it.  This was me at my heaviest, during a fun moment with some of my friends trying to oneup each other with giving me stickers.

This was in early 2005

Weight-wise, I was miserable.  I tried working out but always felt intimidated by the gym.  I tried just walking around town for fun but got injured and gave up.  I had tried Curves (a women's gym with hydraulic-based exercise equipment) the summer between my junior and senior years of college during an internship.  Then after I graduated I joined one as an employee.  I quickly lost some weight, then started their diet, and after 7 years of that, I picked up running because of my graduate school schedule conflicting with the gym's hours.  This is my after picture:

From the Cinco de Miler race in May 2015

Despite becoming a regular exerciser and calling myself a "runner" I still find it strange when other people call me a runner or even just the more general "athlete."  I went to a free yoga for athletes class a couple of weeks ago at a local running store, and it just struck me as strange for the instructor to speak in terms of all of us doing yoga for ourselves as athletes. (Not that it was a bad thing!)  Then I spent a lot of the rest of the time trying on the word and thinking to myself "Wow, I'm an athlete.  Look at me!  I'm being athletic!  Look at how I'm trying this new pose!  I'm such an athlete."  You get the idea.  I'm still trying on that word, especially since I've been working on Runner's World's Summer Run Streak and really enjoying it.