I’m a runner now

That’s right. Uh huh.

Although I did run track in high school, well, I was a sprinter and high jumper in high school and when my coach wanted us to do a 1 mile warm up, I would always make it seem like I was doing a 1 miler, but that NEVER happened! In fact even running 400 m was a stretch. Then in college I was motivated to drop my freshman 15 (more like freshman 20, hey, I’m an overachiever- okay?) I started to run on the treadmill at my apartment complex because, let’s face it, running in 0 degrees is never fun for anyone, I ran for about 3 months enough to quick and easy drop the excess LB’s and of course quit.

Fast forward a million years later (slight exaggeration), and here I am today. Freshman 15 was a thing of the past, now I have the life ##… well let’s just say I’ve slowly crept up the scale. I’ve tried a couple of times in the past couple of years to pick up running again with the couch to 5k (C25K) program, and the first time I did it about 2 years ago I got to where I could run 20 minutes – plateaued and then stopped. At the dawn of this new year, and I was officially fed up! I wanted to prove to myself I could do it again. I mentioned it to a few of my girlfriends, got them on board and we signed up for our first race. I began week 1 again on the C25K with my friends and family support. It stunk! So many times I wanted to quit, but I kept plowing through. The best thing about the C25k program is that it allows you to gradually build up to running for longer durations by doing walk/run intervals, which really helped me to avoid injury and keep the shin splints away.

I finished the training program in 8 weeks, which allows you to build up running for 30 minutes straight. Problem is, I can’t finish a 5k in 30min. So once I “graduated” from my program my next goal was being able to actually run a full 5k. My first time doing it, I ran it in 39:29, except I’m a ding dong and thought that a 5k was 3.2 miles instead of 3.1 so I had a little bit better time then that. I didn’t care what my actual time was. I was ecstatic I actually ran almost 10 minutes longer than the longest I could run. I’m slow as molasses, but it’s still faster than walking.

So a week ago I got to run my first race. I ran the Color Run here in Atlanta, and I’m so glad this was my first experience. It was very laid back, technically not really a race but a run since it wasn’t timed, but it was so much fun. Everyone starts the race in a white shirt. Every kilometer you pass through a color station where volunteers spray/throw powdered color on you. It was great for keeping me pumped, every time I would start thinking I would need to start walking I would see a color station up ahead and I kept plowing through. By the time I was finished I looked like I ran through a rainbow. Towards the end I was getting so winded, but I didn’t know where Andrew and Madeleine would be stationed watching me run by, so I knew I couldn't let them down by seeing me walk. I also wanted to add my own special touch to my race wear so I sewed my own sparkle skirt to run in, which turned out to also be a big motivating plus for me because I stood out, and as people were watching the race they would see the sparkly girl (who looked like she was on death’s door) and cheer me on, which made me feel pretty darn good.

Crossing the finish line felt AMAZING! I ran the whole thing without stopping. However I did feel a little gypped. As a reward to myself for finish the c25k program I bought a Garmin GPS running watch that tracks my mileage, time, heart rate, pace, elevation, viability– okay, never mind, but it does track just about everything! Anyways, I was watching my watch like a hawk so when I rounded the corner and saw Andrew and Madeleine I was pumped because my watch said I had about a 1/4 mile left to go so I was going to power through to the finish. However, they were right at the finish at only 2.88 miles, oh well, I still did it running, no walking, and the sense of accomplishment was HUGE! After you finish the race all the runners received their color packets and we had a color throwing bonanza. It was fantastic.

My next race is already on the horizon. I need a goal to work toward so I can keep up with my running. Another 5k in Atlanta in May, should be lots of fun and a little less colorful.

I’ve learned that running is hard. It is such a mental battle with myself to keep going. I think of a million and one reasons why I should stop, or how I hurt, but I also try to lie to myself and tell myself it will all be over soon, and almost always when my run is over I feel so great and feel like I can conquer the world and can hardly remember how crummy I felt running up that never-ending steep hill. I’ve also learned I’m stronger than I give myself credit for. I have never – read NEVER – been able to get up early to work out. Heck, I don’t like getting up early to go on a really fun vacation – this girl appreciates sleeping in. However, I’ve been getting up at 6:45 to run, and I always wake up before my alarm – whoa, that has never happened before. My most favorite day I ran was a few weeks ago. It was early; I was running at my favorite park and right at the beginning this big athletic man passes me running. Well I strongly dislike being passed, okay I’m competitive even if I have no chance in h-e-double hockey sticks of running fast, it still peeves me. So he passes me, but I continue to run behind him about a hundred miles away. I ran at least 2.5 miles chasing behind him, and I was coming up to my very last 1/4 mile. I rounded the corner and there he was walking back towards me clapping his hands telling me what a good job I was doing, I about lost it! It made me feel like a million bucks – such a kind person to help me through.

So I’m a runner now. My 20 year old self would be so proud. Unfortunately my today self doesn’t lose the LBs as quickly as my decade younger self did, but that’s okay, I’ll get there. One mile at a time.