As you may or may not know, I recently started running. My mom, Leslie, and several of her best girl friends from home (Amy, Renee, and PJ) decided to start running in order to be able to complete a half marathon in the fall and they wanted to get the daughters into it too, Katie and I were the only ones who took the bait (good or bad idea, i wasn't sure yet). It was a huge step for all of us, since none of ran before this, at least not on any regular schedule. And I for one HATED to run! It was my least favorite type of exercise, I would rather do just about anything else if I could avoid running. My husband, who is in the military, is a great runner, at least by my standards, he leaves me in the dust, and he was always trying to get me to run with him and just wouldn't do it. I had run with him a few times, but I didn't have the endurance he did and I never felt like I could match up, so I gave up.
Well, when we all (the girls) committed to running a half marathon by the fall of 2010, I had to get my butt in gear. So, I went out and bought brand new running shoes and hit the pavement. The first several times I ran around our neighborhood, I would struggle to go even a quarter of a mile before having to stop and walk. But slowly I started to make progress. And for those of you that know me, I am not a patient person, its just not a virtue I have, so learning to run was hard sometimes because I wanted to be able to run right away... well it doesn't work like that, it takes time and patience and dedication, its been an interesting lesson for me to learn. Anyway, I really don't like running in our neighborhood because there aren't any sidewalks and I like to listen to music when I run and I was so afraid of getting taken out by a car, so I was ecstatic when I found a park with .5 mile loop around their baseball fields. Its perfect, I can be outside and not have to worry about dying at every turn!
In January, I was planning a trip home for my mom's 50th birthday in February. My dad was away for work and wanted to do something special for her, so he was going to fly me home to spend two weeks with her! So we, the girls that is, decided that while I was home we would all go to Amy's in Arizona for a 5K, our first race, to get us acclimated to running in a race setting. So I started training hard, I could barely run a single mile by that point and had to able to run a 5K by March 6th, YIKES! So I took the advice of some running friends and went to HalHigdon.com to check out his race training schedules. I pulled up his novice 5K schedule, printed it out and started up! I started going to the park on whatever days I was told to and running/walking whatever distance was scheduled for that day. It was really hard at first, but I just kept pushing and started to make progress! On Feburary 16th, I had a breakthrough, I ran 2 miles continuously without stopping! It was the longest continuous distance I had ever ran and my previous record, at least since high school, was .6 miles! I was elated! They werent really fast miles (12.5 min/mi), but I finished them without walking! SUCCESS! I knew that with a more practice I could absolutely run the 5K without stopping! The next run I did was another 2 miles around the park and I finished it in 22:13, almost 11 minute miles, I was even more excited, I knocked nearly a minute and half off per mile, I began to realize I CAN DO THIS! I can be a runner!
Well, when we all (the girls) committed to running a half marathon by the fall of 2010, I had to get my butt in gear. So, I went out and bought brand new running shoes and hit the pavement. The first several times I ran around our neighborhood, I would struggle to go even a quarter of a mile before having to stop and walk. But slowly I started to make progress. And for those of you that know me, I am not a patient person, its just not a virtue I have, so learning to run was hard sometimes because I wanted to be able to run right away... well it doesn't work like that, it takes time and patience and dedication, its been an interesting lesson for me to learn. Anyway, I really don't like running in our neighborhood because there aren't any sidewalks and I like to listen to music when I run and I was so afraid of getting taken out by a car, so I was ecstatic when I found a park with .5 mile loop around their baseball fields. Its perfect, I can be outside and not have to worry about dying at every turn!
In January, I was planning a trip home for my mom's 50th birthday in February. My dad was away for work and wanted to do something special for her, so he was going to fly me home to spend two weeks with her! So we, the girls that is, decided that while I was home we would all go to Amy's in Arizona for a 5K, our first race, to get us acclimated to running in a race setting. So I started training hard, I could barely run a single mile by that point and had to able to run a 5K by March 6th, YIKES! So I took the advice of some running friends and went to HalHigdon.com to check out his race training schedules. I pulled up his novice 5K schedule, printed it out and started up! I started going to the park on whatever days I was told to and running/walking whatever distance was scheduled for that day. It was really hard at first, but I just kept pushing and started to make progress! On Feburary 16th, I had a breakthrough, I ran 2 miles continuously without stopping! It was the longest continuous distance I had ever ran and my previous record, at least since high school, was .6 miles! I was elated! They werent really fast miles (12.5 min/mi), but I finished them without walking! SUCCESS! I knew that with a more practice I could absolutely run the 5K without stopping! The next run I did was another 2 miles around the park and I finished it in 22:13, almost 11 minute miles, I was even more excited, I knocked nearly a minute and half off per mile, I began to realize I CAN DO THIS! I can be a runner!
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