Run, Run Farther, Run Faster

Right now, I'm all about the running.

And it's funny to me that I would even be in this place. I am a sprinter at heart. I was picked for the cross country team in 7th grade, and I hated it. I hated the training, and I hated getting up early to run 2 miles on a Saturday morning. Yuck! I quickly abandoned cross country for only short track races. (100M, 200M, 400M relay, 800M relay, etc.) After high school, running became nothing but an after-thought.

But the need to run has re-surfaced. It started mid-December when a long look in the mirror made me re-think my lack of exercise. I bought a fat-burning DVD and started the next morning. Wow! Was I ever out-of-shape!

Feeling better about my new level of fitness made me pick up a Shape magazine in the waiting room of Halle's physical therapy office. I was drawn to the healthy lifestyle of exercise and the idea that I could become a runner! There was a sample treadmill work-out schedule mentioned in the magazine that I could access on-line. (And considering the temperature in Wheaton at the time, I was limited to indoor running!) When I got home I printed the schedule and began running on the treadmill. They said to vary my work-outs so I was running sprints, walking inclines, and mixing in my fat-burning DVD. Things were beginning to turn-around.

I remember a few years ago in Dallas talking with my neighbor, Tracie, about running. General thickness around my waist kicked me onto the street to run about 2 miles around our neighborhood a few times a week. Tracie saw me one day and said, "Oh, you're a runner! I'm so jealous. I want to be a runner." I quickly helped her to see that I was nothing to be jealous of. A runner I was NOT! A guilt-driven jogger maybe, but not a runner.

Tracie works for State Farm insurance. When a natural disaster hits she has to pick up and go to the disaster site for months at a time. Shortly after our running conversation she left for I think Florida and was gone for many months. When she got back, she excitedly told me that she had learned to run and was running in a marathon in honor of her dad. Wow! I was very impressed, although I can't say that there was instant inspiration for me to accomplish this feat for myself. But, through the course of time, I have thought about Tracie and her running often. Her running definitely is an inspiration to me now!

All of this heightened my desire to BE A RUNNER. I decided to get a subscription to Runner's World to teach me how to run, but I also found it to be very inspirational. People of all sorts of shapes and sizes were running marathons! 26.2 miles. Seems impossible. But if they can do it, I certainly can, right? Well, we'll see. This is the first time in my life that I have actually WANTED to accomplish this. I've always been content to sit back and mumble something about not being able to run farther than 2 miles at a time.

Reading Runner's World made me determined to break through my 2-mile running limit. I began to read articles in my magazine as well as on-line to figure out what I needed to do. I learned that to go farther I needed to slow down....at least at first. This works! I broke my 2-mile wall and was eventually able to run 3 miles, 4 miles, 5 miles! This is HUGE for me. And I have slowly been able to increase my speed and still go the distance!

With the idea of a marathon in the back of my head, I decided to research on-line to see how one might go about training for a marathon. I realized that before you can train for a marathon you have to be running a fair amount of mileage 5-6 times a week. So, for people like me, they have a pre-marathon training schedule. I picked this up and started immediately.

I also read that it's good to sign up for shorter races: 5K's, 10K's, etc. Not only does this give you race experience, but it gives you smaller goals to work towards. Johnny signed us up for an 8K to be held on March 30 in downtown Chicago. 8K=about 5 miles. I can do that! I won't break any records or even finish in the top half of the some 30,000 people running, but I expect it will be a good time! (Several people from Johnny's office are running this race as well. I am really looking forward to the post-race party!)

When the 8K was 5 weeks away, I abandoned the pre-marathon training schedule and switched to a training schedule specifically for an 8K. There are 3 separate schedules depending on your level of running: novice, intermediate, and advanced. Can you believe I fell into the intermediate category? I was pumped.

We are now 2 weeks out from the race. I am plugging along at a good clip. I did pull a muscle or something in my hip, so I'm laying off today, icing it, and praying that it will be ready to run on tomorrow. I'm thinking that the 7 miles I put in yesterday didn't help my situation!

Anyway, there's my story on my journey to become a runner. I probably haven't arrived yet, but I'm on my way. One day, my current long runs will be my short runs!

Track my progress on the blog side-bar under Jen's running log. Feel free to post encouragement here!