Jig and Jog

I was never what you would call “athletic.”  I have terrible hand/eye coordination, and in elementary school was the only person to not make the softball team the year I tried out.  I did make the volleyball team, but only because everyone ended up making the team to ensure we had enough players.  So, when my mom said to me “I want you to try an Irish dance class,” I was very much opposed.  I did not want to go.  I had done ballet and tap and remembered only two things from that experience.  One, that I enjoyed the costumes more than the dancing, and two, the girls in my class weren’t all that nice.   My mother basically told me “Look, you only have to go to this one, and if you don’t like it, we won’t go back.”

18 years later,  Irish dance is still a part of my life.  My mom was right, as she tends to be.  I will never forget how exciting that first class was.  Crammed into a small back rec room at my Catholic elementary school with a few other girls and Bella (the woman who would become my teacher), I discovered that I had a natural ability for something!  Sure, I was horseback riding at the time, and was doing pretty well, but that never felt like “exercise” to me.  This was something completely different. I spent the next 8 years working my way through competition levels and learning new dances.  I continued to dance for Bella until I turned 18 and moved to San Francisco with my parents.   Once I moved to San Francisco, my focus became somewhat laser like.  Suddenly, I was able to sign up for ballet classes at City College, and could attend 4 Irish dance classes a week, because everything was so much closer together than in Los Angeles.  I went to school (where I took usually between 2-3 dance classes per semester), I went to Irish dance (usually 3-4 nights a week) and I went to Pilates (1-2 nights a week), and it was great.  I progressed very quickly in the first year I was in the Bay Area because suddenly my entire world was dance.  It helped that I only knew two other people in the whole city.

Through all this time, I had one goal.  To qualify to dance at the World Championships.   I finally reached that goal after ten years of hard work, and then, just before leaving for Scotland to compete, I injured myself pretty badly.  I went through a really difficult time then, thinking in my head that at 19 my dance career was nearly over.  In addition to this messed up thinking, and the schedule of competitions in Irish dance, I never truly allowed my foot to heal properly, which wound up coming back to bite me.

I lived in San Francisco for 5 years before moving back to Los Angeles and returning to Bella for dance.  I decided after having to drop out of Regionals in 2005, that our school’s competition in March of 2006  would be my “swan song,” so to speak.  That after completing that competition I would focus on studying to sit the exam required to teach Irish dancing. I  was  22 years old.  Sadly, at the competition in March, I ended up with a huge stress fracture across the top of my left foot, due directly to not allowing my previous injuries to heal.  My foot finally gave out, and I was in a boot for 6 weeks.  I had no insurance at this point in my life, because even though I was in school full time, I was at Make-up school which my parents’ insurance did not recognize as “real” school.  So, I had to work with only three physical therapy sessions.  I gave up on dance for a long time then, thinking I would never get to go back.  It was a pretty bleak time for me emotionally.

So, not long after I got a post card in the mail from the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, and I decided to sign up for a half marathon.  This was stupid, because I was not in any shape health wise to do this, but I attempted to push myself forward, and out of my “rut.”  Basically I was looking to fill the void left from dance with something, anything.  I ended up having to drop out of the race because my foot was just not strong enough to manage the amount of training needed.

Over a year and a half later, I came back to dance and manged to compete with a team in Regionals 2007.  It was a great way back and I had a lot of fun.  Since then I’ve been able to compete with a team two other times 2009 Regionals in Denver, and again in Sacramento 2010.  I’m certainly not in the same shape or skill level I used to be, and I do miss dance, but I realize now it will probably never be completely gone from my life.  At this time, I am working on scheduling time to study for my T.C.R.G. so that I may sit the exam in January of 2012.

But, Catherine, how did you get from jig to jog?  Well, here’s the thing.  I’ve never been a “runner,” in fact I used to think that you should only run if you’re being chased.  It was such a chore, I hated it, it wasn’t fun, it was just one foot in front of the other over, and over, and over again.  My dad, is totally different. He loves running, has completed 3 marathons, many 5 and 10K races and runs almost every day.  As my dance career has slowed down, I started gaining weight, and feeling sorry for myself.  So,  when my friend Courtney said she was signing up to run a half marathon through Disneyland this September, I said, “You know what? I’m gonna do that too.”  I signed up and another friend Janna, joined our little training group. We all finished in great times for our first race, and have now even completed our second race! So, now, here I am, training for a third 13.1 mile race, and actually kind of enjoying it.

I’m not sure what exactly clicked for me this time, and I can’t really say that I “like” running just yet but it’s more enjoyable than it was before, maybe now that I have a goal?  I have lost some weight, and I’m working on making healthier choices with food, but my goal wasn’t specifically to “lose weight.”  I think it really had more to do with being tired of feeling so sluggish, and missing that outlet that I had in dance.  So, this is my journey, from jig to jog.  I’m glad you’re coming along for the ride