Monday, October 17, 2011

Running

About 5 years ago, I was listening to some of my friends talk about running.  They were talking about running in a 5K race in May.  It was Octoberish at the time.  I indicated that I could never do something like that.  My CT Friend (CTF), told me that she thought I could, that there was plenty of time to train and do it.

CTF is one of those people that is super fit.  I thought, well, if she thinks I could do it, maybe I can.  She may have just been being polite, but it sure didn't seem that way.  So I started to train.  I got on the tread mill and ran for 2 mins.  I nearly collapsed in a heap of exhaustion and cardiac arrest.  I pressed on and eventually I could run for a whole 10 minutes.  I was all excited about this and I decided to go for a run outside.  This is where things went south for me.  I fell, hurt my foot and that set me back.  I stopped running and then life got me and I never ran in the Mothers Day Dash. 

We moved away, and I just decided that running was something I would never do.  I wasn't a runner, it wasn't going to happen.  But, CTF's belief that I could always sat in the back of my mind.  Enter T, and she said she was going to train for a 5K with another friend.  I was like, hey, I want to do that.  When her friend dropped out, I stepped up and said, let's do this.

Running has always been hard for me.  ALWAYS.  I have also had a lot of negative feedback when ever I have talked about trying it.  It always circled around, you are too fat to do that.  The only person who ever believed that I could was CTF. 

On Sunday, I ran in my first 5K.  I did not die, I actually ran the whole thing.  While my time was not amazing, it was respectable.  It was under 40 minutes, which was my goal.  I really wanted to write, Fat Chicks Can Do It Too on my shirt.  I wanted to prove that in spite of being over-weight, over-40, I did this.  I achieved this goal.

I am not sure why I succeeded this time, I had an injury this time as well.  But, for what ever reason, I was determined to not let this sideline me.  I pressed on.  When I woke up on Sunday, it was rainy and cold.  I thought, G-d really does not want me to do this.  We went.  We ran in the rain.  It wasn't so bad.  It was actually fun.  I think, this might make me a runner.  I am not totally sure.

Snowflake Shuffle anyone?  Shamrock Shuffle?  Warrior Dash?  All of the above?  Who knows what is next.  I do think that it would be poetic to run in the Mother's Day Dash with CTF.  Who knows, maybe some day I will.

1 comment:

  1. I knew you could do it! Again, congratulations! I'm so glad you join me and we got to experience this together. I can't wait for the next race!

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