What running can teach you about this industry

My friend, Camille, and I crossing the finish like at a local 5K. (Camille, who struggled in the beginning, is now running half marathons!)

I started running about four years ago on a whim. A girlfriend of mine, Camille, had done a 5K race (roughly 3.1 miles). Camille said she had to stop a few times before she made it to the end, but she and her running mate completed the race.  I thought, “Hey, maybe I should start running too.”

I had gained weight in college (Freshmen 15, anyone?) and had gained even more weight since I entered the working world where most of my time meant sitting at a desk for 8 to 10 hours a day, staring at a computer screen. I had never been a thin girl. I had always described myself as curvy, but I knew my “curvy” was coming dangerously close to just plump. I have never been much of a dieter either (I like food WAY too much), but I had to do something to keep myself from ballooning. I remembered in high school that I liked being active. There was something freeing about being outside of the stuffy classroom, and I figured I could get that same freedom from the four walls of my office if I took up running.

Coincidentally, this was also around the time that I decided to start pitching to agents and publishers again. I had tried pitching a romantic suspense to them a year earlier with no luck. But I had been writing a few stories in the meantime and my husband said it was worth trying again. I wasn’t eager to do it. I didn’t want to set myself up for rejection for the umpteenth rejection, but I figured the stories were just sitting there. Some of them were pretty good, so why not give it a try.

Neither task was very easy. I’ve yet to find another cardiovascular exercise that’s as challenging as running. I ran my first quarter mile and almost passed out. A few months later I could run a mile and a half. (Not the Boston Marathon, but it felt like quite the achievement.) By the end of the year, I could do a slow three miles on the treadmill.

Pitching also came with rejections. I got a detailed and nicely worded reject letter from Harlequin. (Hey, at least the editor took the time out to write it.) And the current editor at Kensington that I have now, also ended up rejecting the first project I sent to her. But one publisher DID say yes. (Thank God!)

My most recent 5K. (I ran this one while almost 5 months pregnant!)

Now four years later, I’ve run several  5Ks, 8Ks and one 10K. I was training for a 10 miler when I found out I was pregnant, so I had to put that goal aside… for now. Also, in the past four years, I’ve published two books and now have a new book series slated for 2013. Running has taught me perseverance. You don’t give up despite the fatigue, the pain, and the frustrations of seeing person after person pass you by. That same perseverance is required in the book industry. You get constant setbacks, disappointments, contracts that may fall apart, etc. In both running and writing you need to be patient, hit your stride, and just hold out for the end goal: crossing the finish line.