Seven

I'm really getting excited about running!!

Let me give you just a little background.  My first exposure to any kind of sport was in the fifth grade when a friend invited me to play basketball with her-on a team.  I didn't have a CLUE about basketball, and it completely showed.  I had to be taught how to bounce the ball.   I only remember being on the court during a game one time.  I remember being passed the ball, and FREEZING!!  I actually forgot to go to the last game of the season.  I'll never forget it....that night my parents took me out for pizza and I remember seeing all these teams there eating and it hit me like a ton of bricks--I had just completely forgotten about the game that day!!!  Well, it's safe to say my team didn't miss me at all!

Other than school-forced PE, I didn't have any physical activity until I joined the Army National Guard and went to basic training-Ft. McClellan, Alabama.  I got pretty good at push ups and sit ups, but that run always hurt me.  I just never felt like I could do it.  I'm still not exactly sure why.  I think I just really didn't like to breathe heavy!!  Four and a half years in the military and I never did well.  Truth be told, I honestly only passed one or two of my PT tests-and that was just barely under my time limit.  Not passing the PT test is what kept me from finishing Officer Candidate School.  That turned out to be a very good thing, but my point is that I never got into running and I was never any good at it.

Fast forward 6 years, I was going through a really hard time in my first marriage.  I started running--both literally and figuratively. I "ran" my first 5K (Race For the Cure, Little Rock, Arkansas), pushing a double stroller, in September, 1996.  (Yes, I'm aware that pushing a stroller is completely against race etiquette...but I wasn't aware of that then!)  I really didn't run the whole thing--I probably ran about a fourth of it (if that).   I really LOVED it.  Part of it was that there were tens of thousands of women runners (at the time, and I think to this day, that race is STRICTLY for women).  The energy was contagious.

My separation and eventual divorce threw me off track.

A couple of years later when I remarried, I started circuit training, with an attempt at running thrown in here and there for good measure...but I never thought I really had the time.  Circuit training was just 30 minutes every other day.  I felt like I was getting much more out of doing that than I would have trying to run that same amount of time.

During that whole marriage (which lasted 8 years...exactly 8 years longer than it should have, but that's a different blog), I walked and "ran" off and on-mostly off, and never really RUNNING.  When he left, I started going out twice a day, everyday, 2-4 miles (each time).  I mostly walked, but I did throw in some running here and there when a good beat came on my iPod.  I lost a ridiculous amount of weight, but I felt better than I think I ever had.  But, I wasn't "running" because I liked "running"...I was running from the pain.  Well, not FROM it, but because of it.  That was my time to think...well, actually, to let go of all the thoughts in my head.

Since that time I have been "walunning" (my word for walking more than running), and occasionally "rulking" (running more than walking) off and on.

I'm going to write about why I decided to run a marathon another day.  But I will say this....this is probably the first time in my life that I'm "running" (training to run) for the sake of running.  I'm excited about it.  I look forward to it.  I like the way it makes me feel.

I joined a runners' forum (a sub-group of NEWO-No Excuse Work Out), and I'm planning on joining Huntsville Track Club.  I'm also going to start training with a club in March.  I will have finished Hal Higdon's 30/60 by then.  The new "program" is geared for running a 5K in May.  That SHOULD keep me on track for the Rocket City Marathon in December!!!


Okay, so today's "run" was VERY cold.  It wasn't just the temperature-the WIND was crazy, cut-through-you-like-a-knife cold.  But, it was good.  My speed isn't great, but I can feel my recovery time getting shorter and shorter (which I think is a very good thing).

I'm going today to buy some gear-tights and gloves!!

:D