We Do This Because it is Hard

This isn't really a resolution post, it's more like a revelation post that fits in with living differently in the future. I'd tried to start running at various points in the past, some more successful than others but shin splints and apathy usually kicked in at some point and derailed me.
But there was someone interviewed on NPR this fall and I wish I remembered who it was, he was an ultra-marathoner. Anyway, in talking about he starting and why he keeps running, he said something like, "I do it because it is hard." And this lightbulb went off in my head. I think I was previously derailed because I expected running to get easy and it never did.
But why did I think this? I have chosen challenge in other facets of life, I think of myself as someone who does hard things all of the time. I think about in my work, while in some ways the learning curve gets less steep, it'll never be "easy." Or shouldn't be because then you're doing it wrong.  Some things never become "easy" but I don't give up and I do them exactly because they are hard.
There were some really tough spots of 2012. Some amazing ones, too. But in the tough ones, I felt very self-pitying and like I wasn't strong enough to deal with how tough things were. But I was, and I am and I am aware that some things are tougher because I've chosen them to be that way.  Others are dumb luck.  But I am coming to see that I want this challenge, it's part of my personality and it's ultimately the way I want to live... at least for now. And so while I've topped out at a little over 3 miles so far, this post may be alternately titled, "or how I learned to stop worrying and love running."