Running in the Right Direction

Over the weekend, I was hit with the crazy idea to run a marathon. Actually, not a whole marathon, but half of one. I was suckered by an advertisement for the APLA's annual charity event down at Disneyland.

The funny thing is that I absolutely abhor running. My last trainer forced me to run 30 minutes every day and I hated it with a passion. The inability to breathe, and those horrible shin splints! They are horridly painful things, and after 10 minutes of running, I was stuck with them for the rest of the workout. No amount of whining got me out of it. It was not fun.

I was a swimmer in high school. The worst I had to contend with was a little charlie horse when I didn't stretch properly. Other than that, it was smooth sailing. Running I did not do.

So, because all my previous experiences with this sport have been purely negative, I've decided to take it VERY slowly. The event is in September, so that's a good 5 months to train. And it turns out the director of our gym at work runs training for another race in January, so I've got the whole program at my feet (so to speak).

I'm still marveling at this decision. About 5 years ago, I had the same urge, but chickened out because of the damn shin splints. So I'm taking it easy, doing the research (ha HA!), slowly getting my body used to distance running.

And I feel fabulous. Since I've been working out pretty consistently for the last month, it hasn't been the shock to the system that I expected. My body isn't revolting against me, I'm not in pain, I'm just pleasantly sore. And seem to be getting healthier and fitter by the day.

In fact, today being a non-running day, I did some cardio on that "Natural Runner" thing that ALWAYS screws up my back because of the weird angle you're at on it. 20 minutes, and I was barely winded, let alone in pain.

But I know myself. I get really excited about something and have the tendency to burn out quickly. So I'm pacing myself on this so that doesn't happen. Because I really want to do it. And being able to say "I'm training for the marathon" is pretty damn rad.

Which is always reason enough to do anything.