Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Putting on the big girl panties

It is official... I AM a Runner!  No more do I talk about going running and mean "running" as in I walk most of the way with a few short bursts of jogging.  No, now I can run for 20+ minutes straight with no walking in the middle.  AND I'm not winded doing it!  If you've spent much time with me on my blog you'll know that when I started down the running road I could barely run for 30 seconds at a time before I thought I'd die - literally.  If you would have told me then that I could or would be running for 20 minutes in a row and feel like I could go more I would have thought you were crazy, secretly hope it would happen and doubt it ever would.  Today, it is a reality and I love it!

So, how did I do it?  What made the difference?  I found a buddy who was exactly where I was - starting at the bottom and had never run a day in her life but wanted to.  We both got a Nike+ SportBand that comes with a coach feature.  We started a "Walk to Run" coaching program that walked us through every single day exactly what to do and followed it like our lives depended on it.  I'm only 8 weeks into that 12 week program and I'm running 2+ miles a day 6 days a week.  Yes, ME!

At the end of the 12 week program, we'll be running a 5K race.  This will not be my first 5K but it will be the first one I actually run the entire way and run to compete rather than just complete.

And in October, I'm running my first half marathon!  Yes, as in 13.1 miles of running.  How fitting - my first half marathon is called the Halloween Half and I get to run it in my Halloween costume on my favorite day of the year.  What could be better?  Um... having the first draft of my novel complete before then, too? 

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