About 10 years ago, I changed my blog name from “Running in Lynchburg” (or something really close to that) to a “Running Because” Blogger domain when I moved.
I switched over to WordPress later, and eventually dropped a dot-whatever-dot-com to just a dot-com.
I don’t know where “Running Because” came from — it just happened. And then, in large part thanks to #RunChat, I essentially became a brand. Anything I created on social media including “Running Because” as part of it.
But in that span of a decade, I never fully liked that name. When I met people, it felt weird to say I’m “Running Because on Twitter.” After 13 years of running, I still don’t know why I run, or what I run for (or from). I’m “running because” of a lot of things, but I really got tired of carrying this label around.
I got rid of the dot-com part of being “Running Because” sometime in the past year or two and switched to this site so I can claim part of my real name. And at least once a month for the past year I’ve spend 10-15 minutes thinking of a new Twitter handle. Nothing ever felt right though, so I just rolled along with that “Running Because” name hanging over my head.
Then last week when I realized I was injured for the third time in the past year, I knew it was time to finally change to … me.
After 7 years as @runningbecause … I'm now just … me. Safely switched my account and held onto the name for a little while.
— David (@realDavidHylton) September 1, 2017
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It’s something I should have done a long time ago, and now I’m eager to make several other changes not only with running and overall fitness, but also in other aspects my life.
This agonizing, but very liberating, decision is just the start of many changes to come. All it took is one step to open my eyes and my mind to some new things …
Real David H. 
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