Week Four: Make it Happen

1-24-12: When I started this journey, I told you some very good reasons why I shouldn't try to do this. Well, today proved all those reasons valid. 

My husband was gone til 8:30pm. 

My daughter was throwing up sick so Childwatch or a babysitter was out.

I had a horrible night of sleep before. 

I didn't feel like it/was grumpy/had a possible PMS situation. 

But, the funny thing about determining to do something is this: it really doesn't matter how I feel anymore. I'm going to find a way to make it happen. And I did. 

There I was, at 9:15pm, running my heart out on the treadmill because of sheer determination. It's too early in the game to start making excuses. It had to happen today, or a downward spiral of failure could begin. I'm really proud of myself. Wow, that was hard to type.

Oh yeah, and I had been doing 18 minute miles, but tonight I did a mile in 16 min 40 sec. I am excited about watching that number go down!

By the way, it happened. But just a little. No one ever has to know but you and me. (1.23 miles)

1-26-12: Again, I waited until 8:30 to hit the gym. I absolutely did not feel like going. At all. But knowing that there are people out there watching me and asking me how it's going makes me go even when I'd rather curl up on the sofa. I began training and "just getting it over with" when Sarah texted me, "Run, Trish, Run!" It came at the exact right time to motivate me.

I noticed the time and the distance I had run, and decided to see if I could beat my average 18 minute mile. Well, I pushed myself to run faster and faster, only breaking for 30 seconds at a time, and...

I ran a mile in 16:00 minutes!

 That's much better! I like having a goal to beat. (1.50 miles)

1-29-12: I was supposed to run yesterday, the last day of the week, but I got to the Y 5 minutes after it closed. Note to self: Y closes at 7pm on Saturdays. So, in keeping with this week's theme of MakingItHappenNoMatterWhat, I decide to run on Sunday. I will not fail to get in all three runs each week. Not this soon after starting. Two of my friends run with me, this time outside. It is my first outdoor run. It is a beautiful, beautiful day. We start out and all is going well, but I must admit I miss the treadmill. I feel exposed out here. My friends are great, totally fun to talk with while walking. But in the Y no one can hear how loud I'm huffing and puffing over the noise of cardio machines. And I know exactly how fast I'm going and how far. I am going to have to train outdoors if I'm ever going to run a 5K, but I sure hope I can learn to like it more.

Week Three

1-17-12:  My good friend Sarah has informed me that she has started C25K today! Yay! I'm going to have a training buddy, plus my good friend Kimberly is going to go with me sometimes too!
                Back at the Y tonight. I'm swinging my arms to stretch before getting on the treadmill and I slap an Asian woman in the chest. Great start to the run. I'm repeating C25K week 2 this week, because it was hard and week 3 is really a jump. As I run I wonder again why I haven't peed on myself yet, and then it hits me that my touching-at-the-top thighs might be holding it in. This thought makes me

laugh out loud,

to myself,

in a crowded gym.
(1.15 miles)

1-19-12: Yay for my first buddy run! Sarah O. came to the Y with me this time and I ran for 1.54 miles in 27 minutes. It means so much to have you all encouraging and even joining me! I know I will be able to do this. Tonight's big question was, "What's the difference between running and jogging?"  I found out that 5.3mph is a fast jog for me, but 5.7 is definitely running. I loved running next to a friend.

1-21-12: My first morning run! Saturday morning at the Y is for basketball games, therefore I had my pick of treadmills. I have now completed three runs a week for three weeks! I texted with my brother Nathan during the walking minutes, which was fun. (1.46 miles)

Total miles run in 2012:

11.61



Week Two

1-9-12: Noah's 9th birthday. My first time taking all four kids with me to the Y while I train. Drop the younger three off in Childwatch, send Baker to the gym to practice his bball, hop on the treadmill. This week I'm jogging 90 seconds, walking two minutes. It's harder!! (1.21 miles)

1-11-12: Tonight I thought I wasn't going to get to run, but then it turned out that I could. I had already had a small glass of red wine with dinner, but I couldn't even feel the wine, so I thought it would be okay to go ahead and get my run over with. More on that later. Before I could go to the gym I had to take Noah to Target to buy something with his bday money. Right in the front of the store I ran into Molly, the mom of four inspiration for running, and she gave me a high five for starting!!! It was just the encouragement I needed to press on that night. God knew I would think about that high five later on the treadmill and keep going.
And now for my first rule of running:

Never go for a run after drinking any amount of alcohol.

I felt like my legs were full of lead. Ugh. Never again. (1.19 miles)

1-14-12: Getting into a routine at the Y. Don't feel so new. Am surprised I haven't peed on myself while jogging yet. Spend the entire 20 minutes wondering if the person on the treadmill in front of me is a man or a woman. (1.12)

Week One

1-2-12: I stretch my sports bra on, put on an over-sized T-shirt and athletic pants, lace up my decade-old New Balance sneakers (borrow hubby's socks, don't have any of my own) and head out at 7pm to the Islands YMCA to face the workout room. I feel exactly like I did whenever I started a new school growing up. A mixture of nerves, desperation, doubt, and confidence. The chill in the air amplifies all of these feelings. I wander around and eventually find the right place, then remember my nether-issues and make my way to the bathroom to pee. I find a treadmill on the back row, butt to wall, thank you very much. I begin. I walk at 2.5, then 3.0 for a few minutes, then try to jog at 4.0 and then 4.5 for a while. I have in mind that I will do this for 30 minutes. I have no idea what I'm doing and I spend the entire 30 minutes wishing and hoping that one of the fit and firm girls will make eye contact with me and tell me I can do this, keep it up! Why are they ignoring me? I resolve to keep this in mind when I am fit and firm and see a chubby girl on a treadmill in early January with tears in her eyes.

As I leave the Y the chilly air feels good and I exhale, knowing that the hardest first step has been taken. (1.64 miles complete.)

1-4-12: I find the Couch to 5K running program on the web and start that tonight. It's only 20 minutes and it tells me not to push myself too hard at first. Even so, the training feels harder tonight. (1.14 miles) 


1-6-12: Tonight I go to the Habersham Y because that's where Baker has basketball practice. I watch a show on that Van der Sloot guy who kills girls in exotic locations. Apparently, he is a sociopath. I hope he gets life in prison. I think about Dexter. I actually look forward to the jogging minutes this time and it gives me the false hope that I might have learned to like running already! (1.16 miles)

The Beginning

Ok. Here we go. This is happening.

I have decided that I am going to attempt to conquer a "can't" in my life. I am itching for a challenge lately, I don't know why, maybe my age (32)? I thought about conquering my fear of heights by jumping out of an airplane. I mean, it would be really cool to be able to say that I've jumped out of a freakin' airplane. That would be something very unexpected for this church-going, homeschooling, mother of four woman to do, right? But then I looked up "skydiving deaths" and it turns out that most deaths were caused by, not heart attack (which I thought), but... here it comes...hard landing. 

So, I decided that jumping out of a plane might not be the smartest thing for a woman who wants to watch her children grow up to do.

Then it hit me, in November during the Rock 'n Roll Marathon mania here in Savannah, that I knew of several mom-friends running. a. marathon. But surely they were already the running type, right? No. One just had her third child and ran the full after running for about a year. Another had four kids (three boys then a girl, like me!) and had never run even to the end of her cul-de-sac before 6 months ago. She ran the half, and says running has changed her life. She'll be training for the full this November. If they could do it, so could I, right?

And now, I shall list the reasons I cannot possibly start "running," whatever that means.

I hate running.
I don't have time.
I don't have shoes.
I hate running.
I don't know anything about how to run. Is there a right way?
I am overweight, and will jiggle when I run.
I've had four kids, and will pee when I run.
I hate running.
I have big knockers. Enough said.
I have four kids and a busy husband. When would I run?
I don't have any running clothes.
It's not "me."
Plus, I hate it.

So, this seems like the most impossible thing for me to conceivably become, a runner. Someone who runs and is changed by running. Someone who might even, gulp, like running.

This is my impossible.

And I have gotten to a place in my life where I just don't like something being impossible for me. It makes me angry. Like I just want to stare down "impossible" and punch it in the face. Hard. And then have a good cry, because I did it, and I thought I couldn't.

I am going to become a runner. Now, the journey begins.