Last year, my big bro, Bill, impressed me when he ran a marathon. Bill has always been pretty athletic. Back when he was in college he biked all the way from Austin, TX to Anchorage, Alaska. I guess running a marathon shouldn't have really surprised me.
Somewhere in the back of my mind, I always thought, "That would be cool. That would be a big accomplishment.". The problem is, I HATE running. I mean, I REALLY HATE running. It is monotonous, and the constant pounding of my feet on the ground is jarring. I can think of so many more fun ways to get exercise. But then, I am not doing any of those, either!
My dad tried to convince the family to run in a marathon. I blew it off at first, but then everyone started talking about it, and before we knew we had set a plan in motion for all of us to start our own training programs. I am not so ambitious (or anywhere near fit enough!) to run a full marathon, but I think it would be awesome to run a half marathon. That is still a little over 13 miles, which is quite a distance.
So, my first day out running, I did all the right stretches, drank some water, put on my brand new special running shoes, and brought my running buddy - my little dachshund, Orion. I was ready to go! And. . .I barely made it 1/8 mile. I felt so deflated! No literally, I felt like I had no breath left in me, and I was pretty sure someone had just tried to stick a scouring brush down my throat. My tiny little dog looked at me in embarrassment as he sat idly by. I think I was such a disappointment to him.
Not to be discouraged, I kept at it. By the end of a week, I was going a little over 1/2 mile, so I was making progress. I didn't want to push too much, because I have heard that can cause problems later. Still, I was pleased with where I was headed.
Within a few weeks, I had finally reached that 1 mile goal. Woot!! The last time I ran a full mile (without stopping), was when I was in high school, and even then I was really pushing myself. So this felt AWESOME! I wanted to jump up and down and shout my success to the whole neighborhood. Except I couldn't because I was completely out of breath and trying hard not to puke all over my front lawn.
After that, I started pushing myself just a bit harder, and very shortly i was doing about 1.5 mi - further than I have ever run before! Then the weather turned nasty (it does that in the spring), and I was not able to get out. I tried keeping up my strength and stamina by hopping on the stationary bike. That helped, but I wasn't very consistent. When I was finally able to go out running again, I was back down to running only a mile. Bummer!
The good news is that it hasn't been so long that my body has forgotten everything. Today's run was only a mile, but it was an easy mile. I felt like I could have gone much farther. I was barely out of breath, and I was feeling pretty good.
There are some other benefits of running. Aside from some serious calf muscles (nice!), I have noticed that my circulation has improved significantly. All through the winter, I had trouble sleeping because no matter what position was I lying in, my arms would fall asleep. Totally numb from shoulders to fingertips. It felt really weird. Since running, I have not had that problem at all, which has been very nice:-)
I can't say I have any more energy that before. I suffer from chronic fatigue, and so far it seems no matter what i do, that will never really change. However, I think I have noticed fewer migraines, which is really the best bonus of all.
So, I am planning to run a half marathon some time this fall, in either September or October. A lot of my other family members will be joining me as well, so we will be running together. Hopefully we will all be able to cross that finish line!
