Running

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!