Jul 7, 2009

I Still Can't Believe I'm Going to Put this in Writing

I hate running. I never loved it, but ambivalence started turning to loathing when I was 11. It was at that point that I was outrun on a race track by the 6 year old brother of a friend.

My high school gym teacher didn't help. He'd take our class on runs through town, trotting us around in our ratty gym-wear for traffic and bystanders to view. Of course, he usually ran right behind the stragglers, which meant that at least half the time my friend Jesse and I could count on his company.

Jesse wasn't in bad shape at all but she, like me, was only five feet tall and our stride was bound to be a bit shorter than the rest of the class'. We had co-ed gym, so half my class were boys, many of the class were in better shape and all of the class had longer legs. My memory is a bit fuzzy but the only kid I know for a fact was slower than us was in a wheel chair.

And in the ensuing thirteen years? Let's just say running hasn't had a big part in my life.

And now, at 31 and hopelessly out of shape, I've committed to run a 5k in October. Of this year.

I kind of wonder if my gym teacher does house calls. Maybe I could use the motivation. He was sort of a younger version of R. Lee Ermey. In lieu of Gunny, I have Toby and a progressively more difficult running schedule mapped out in Excel. The goal is to be race-ready in 12 weeks.

Now all I have to do is...well....just do it. Too bad the "doing" is so much harder than the planning.

4 comments:

Toby said...

Thanks for your support honey! I know we can do it... Well I know you can do it me on the other hand is a diffrent story!

P.S. Look I am posting a comment!

Holly said...

And I'm so proud of you.

Unknown said...

You guys can totally do it! Good luck in your training!!!

Fruit Fly said...

Good luck! I SUCK at running. I did do it before our 10 year reunion though. You do see results and feel better about yourself pretty quick, I think - but it SUCKS!!

Maybe I should borrow your motivation and try doing it again.