By: Carolyn Macduff <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hi!\nI\u2019m Carolyn Macduff and I\u2019m a 24-year-old graduate student and marathon runner.\nI also have anxiety that makes my brain a little more cluttered and life just a\nlittle harder. Running has become my main savior and best way to quiet my\nanxious mind. How did I discover that running was the only thing that helped,\nyou ask? Well, I now present my story. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Let\u2019s back up to 2016. At\nthat time, I was getting my undergraduate degree and working for the Housing\nDepartment at the University of North Texas. I had been dealing with these\nnegative thoughts that left me scared to be alone, scared to mess up, and\nscared of life outside of college. I decided to schedule an appointment at the\nUniversity of North Texas Counseling Center because I already knew I had some\nform of anxiety and wanted to be able to advocate for my UNT Housing residents\nwho battled with mental illness. I took the generic quiz for anxiety, and was\nshocked to discover I had scored a 99 out of 100 on the quiz. This gave my\nanxiety even more anxiety. The counselor diagnosed me with almost every kind of\nanxiety you can think of. She then asked me to find a way to escape whenever\nthe voice in my head began to send negative thoughts throughout my brain. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I had always been\ninterested in running, and even dabbled in a 5K fun run every once in a while.\nAfter my diagnosis of Severe Anxiety, I laced up, and began running. Running\nbecame the most important thing to me. It became my constant. I knew that when\nI ran, I could pray, run off negative energy, and scream at my anxious\nthoughts. Soon, I had built up enough stamina to conquer my first half\nmarathon. In 2016, I ran my first half in 2 hours and 26 minutes and was ready\nto train for more. After running 4 half marathons, I signed up for my first\nfull marathon. This proved to be a feat and I can easily say this was the\nhardest thing I have ever done. I spent the last 5 miles repeating the phrase\n“Just one more mile. Take one more step.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nBoston Marathon is an event I have watched for years. A few days after Marathon\n#1 ended, I began to set my sights on Boston. My anxiety began telling me that\nI was probably too slow and would never make it. Well, with the help of 1\npowerful God, multiple selfless running partners, and the support of my family\nand friends, I hope to qualify for Boston by the time I turn 30. I recently ran\nmy second Marathon, the BMW Dallas Marathon, and managed to knock 21 minutes\noff my time from Marathon #1. This, to me, was huge. This meant that the\ntraining I was doing, the running community I chose to surround myself with,\nand the healthy life I was creating for myself, was paying off 110%. Anxiety\nmay be a constant battle every single day, but by God, I refuse to let it stop\nme from reaching my goals. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By: Carolyn Macduff Hi! I\u2019m Carolyn Macduff and I\u2019m a 24-year-old graduate student and marathon runner. I also have anxiety that makes my brain a little more cluttered and life just a little harder. Running has become my main savior and best way to quiet my anxious mind. How did I discover that running was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":6913,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"yoast_head":"\n