Growing up, I would only run if I were chasing or being chased by something, usually a horse. Outside of cars, my preferred mode of transportation was on the back of said horse. Or I would walk. Maybe. Phys Ed class was little more than an opportunity to practice deep, guttural moaning sounds with some huffing and puffing thrown in here and there. Don't get me wrong, I was always in great shape. Growing up a farm child with lazy parents has a way of doing that.
But running? Nope. No thanks. Ugh.
Fast forward to August 2011: R and I decided it was time to kiss our hard-earned insulation goodbye. And in a momentary lapse of all things good sense, I decided to try a couch to 5k running program. I bought some pretty Nike's and hit the treadmill. Warm up walk for 5 minutes. Okay, done. Easy. I can do this. Jog 60 seconds, then walk 90 seconds, and repeat 9 times. Sounds easy enough, right? Good grief. 60 seconds may as well have been 60 minutes. Repeat 9 times??! Huff, puff, huff, puff.
I started the program five times. The first four times I made it to week 3, day 1:
Jog 3 minutes
Walk 2 minutes
Jog 90 seconds
Walk 2 minutes
Repeat twice.
And then I'd magically start feeling a bug coming on, or my foot would hurt, or I'd be too tired. I'd just take a little break. Just put off one run for a day. Or maybe two. Before I knew it, a week or four had gone by and I'd be feeling like crap for taking such a long break (quitting), and I'd start again. Because hey, that number on the scale isn't going to change itself, and after a while, diet alone can only do so much.
The fifth time I started the program was in January 2012 (what is it about January?) and this time it stuck.
I had lost a bunch of weight and was feeling pretty good, and I think that was the first key to my success. My brain stopped focusing so much on the numbers on the scale. Don't get me wrong, I was still counting calories in and calories burned, I just lightened up a little bit and shifted focus from the scale to just wanting to finish that stupid couch to 5k.
In April 2012, I ran my first race. I hadn't finished the program yet due to a calf strain a few weeks earlier, but I was registered and I ran it, 5km in 31 minutes, 45 seconds.
31:45:35.
And that was it. I was hooked. The adrenaline, the "I did it", the falling over about 12 seconds after crossing the finish line because I had pushed the last 100 yards as fast as I could. Ah-mazing. Again! I need to do this again!
Earlier that spring I had reconnected with a friend who is an incredibly inspiring and accomplished runner, and also happened to be completing her holistic nutritionist certification and starting a business to offer running and nutrition (for running) coaching, called Eat 2 Run. Immediately after finishing my first race, she started to coach me as a trial client. Sarah's coaching was the second key to my success. Between the training plan and nutrition recommendations, I learned how to safely challenge myself on the trail and how to support and maintain my healthy body. I think the most important thing she did for me was to suggest that I could move beyond run/walk and actually run 20 minutes straight, then 30, then 50, without falling over 12 seconds after crossing the finish line.
This was the turning point for me. Running became part of my life, part of me. And I realized that I was actually enjoying it. Enjoying running.
As the fall approached and R and I both found ourselves trying to balance working full time and going to school while also raising our toddler, I stopped prioritizing my runs. And then, I stopped running. September long weekend my bestie and I went for a great run, and the next time I put on my shoes was last week.
I know that all of the challenges of our *very* challenging fall would have been much easier to handle had I kept running. Not just for fitness and to keep at bay the 20 lbs I put back on, but - and more importantly - to keep my stress down and my confidence in my own strength up.
Thankfully, the magical powers of January have reached out to me, and I've been feeling energized, motivated and ready to take back my running. I laced up last week and surprisingly felt really good after 4 months off.
I am a runner who likes to race, not against people, but with people and for myself. It's not really about race times, it's about setting a goal and training toward it, and then reaching that goal. The races also help me be accountable to myself. I register for a race, which costs me money. I make a training plan, which takes an investment of time and research and energy. And then I tell people about my goal so it's out there and I will be asked about it, and if I don't complete it I'll have to explain why.
That's what this blog is about.
I have a goal for 2013: to run a half-marathon. August 10, 2013.
I'm not romanticizing this goal at all. It will mean a lot of work coming up with a training plan, building in smaller race goals along the way. It will mean getting up in the wee hours of the morning to run before work, it will mean giving up some of the small amount of spare time I have. It will take an immense commitment not only from me but also from R, whose support I will need functionally and emotionally. It will mean running in miserable weather, running when I'm tired, running when I just don't feel like it.
But it will also mean energy, fitness, accomplishment and confidence, and most importantly, I will enjoy it. Most of the time.
Accountability to myself, when I'm the only one who will experience consequences, is something I tend to hit hard in the beginning and struggle to maintain as time goes on. Sarah blogged about her experience training to run a Boston qualifying time in the Vancouver Marathon last year, and her blog is what inspired me to write this one. I'm hoping that by writing about my journey and posting my blog where people I know might read it, I will achieve better accountability to myself. And I am really looking forward to sitting down after I've crossed the finish line to read about how I felt along the way.
Here's to August 10, 2013.
SD
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