Fail

Yesterday I had the worst run ever. Lately I haven't been doing well just in general, but yesterday took the cake. After our February 5k Tink & I had increased distance a bit up to 4 miles, with the goal of 5.24 miles by May for our Marathon Relay Team. Then out of nowhere, some time around 2 weeks ago, I couldn't even finish our usual 3 miles that we've been doing routinely for months. What the heck?

So I started yesterday in a funk from the beginning knowing how poorly I'd been running the past week or so, plus I was running alone for the first time in a while, PLUS all the spandex models who were apparently hibernating & getting skinnier all winter were out full force. (It's really easy to feel hardcore when you're the only crazy people running in the snow... not so much when surrounded my models who could kick your ass.) I have no idea why this effected me the way it did but before I knew it (sometime between my 1st & 2nd walk breaks) I was this runny, gross, crying AND running mess of a person. I can only imagine what went through the mind of anyone who passed me.

It was bad.

After starting up my jog... again... after the 2nd break, I finally decided "this is just dumb" & walked the rest of the way. It's the first time in my life I ever felt good about quitting. I started thing whole running thing to have a healthier body & get some clarity of mind, & I wasn't getting either of those yesterday. So instead of beating myself up any further... I stopped. I'm thinking of taking the rest of the week off. Obviously my body hates this right now, & so does my head. So maybe I'll give them both a vacation from the running. Blah....

C25K

"What Have You Done Today To Make You Feel Proud?" 

Well I'll tell you... today I graduated from C25k!!! It's a 9  week (0r 11 in our case) running program that's supposed to take you from the couch to running a 5K. And believe me, I was planted very solidly in the couch end of that spectrum. Basically, here's what my progression looked like:



12 weeks ago I was on my friend Allison's couch watching The Biggest Loser & jamming the the theme song when she jokingly asked me those very lyric: What have you done today to make you feel proud? Well crap. Nothing.

11 weeks ago at Cambodican with Tink eating seafood wontons I said "Hey, do you wanna run?" Of course she laughed at me, wouldn't you? I don't remember the exact conversation but somehow we went from "Yeah right!" to "See you on Tuesday to run." Thus began our C25K journey.

10 weeks ago... death. Can't breathe. Hurt everywhere. Oh dear Lord, make it stop. Embarrassment... & that was only for 60 SECOND INTERVALS! But we had determination (& just to make sure there was no way to wimp out, we told everyone we know.) I told Jeff about our running program & he immediately was like "You should sign up for the half-marathon in May!" Ha! Oh ouch, I'm too sore from 60 seconds of running to laugh!!

1 week ago we took this picture at Dunkin Donuts celebrating running the full distance of a 5k for the first time!



We're runners.

(yes, we do understand that donuts negate all the work we just did... so does our usual ice cream reward... but I like to think we're just training Pavlov style. Mmm running is delicious...)

I'll admit that this has never been easy... not 1 step of the way. Calf pain, dodging dog poop & roadkill, the geese by the river trail who hiss at you & chase you, snow storms... it's been... *sigh* it's been... great. Seriously, I've loved it! I mean,  I still feel like death at least once during any given run, but it can't stop us! Know why? Because we're runners.

January 23rd, 2010: Graduation from C25K

February 13th, 2010: Our First 5K Race. (fans & supporters with glitter signs welcome at the finish line)

There's still no way I'm running a half-marathon by May... we may be runners, but we're not delusional. But maybe a relay-team marathon? We'll see... Next up is a little speed training until our race & then on to 10k training! Bring it. We're runners.

I'd like to thank the Academy...

Tink & I have some sincere thanks to hand out. We have this ridiculous support system that I would never have expected for 2 people just trying to get up to what "normal" people can run. Jen, thanks for being a great trainer while we were constantly convinced we would die. Emma, thanks for helping us push ourselves farther. Sarah, Jeff, Erin, Rebecca, Allison, John, the Facebook group & so so many others, thanks for all the moral support & for never laughing when we only ran for a minute at a time! Love you guys.

Sore knees, happy heart.