Running Like the Wind

Well, in April I started running everyday. I had a goal....that by October I would run the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. I had remembered that the year before someone had challenged me to walk it and I had wimped out. Pretty sad. But at that time I really honestly didn't know if I could walk a 5K. Sounded long to me.
But last spring I was changing my tune. I was getting tired of being pleasantly plump. Christmas of last year I weighed the most I had ever weighed (except when I was pregnant, and it was getting dangerously close to pregnancy weight for a while there) and I knew that I needed to stop the madness and the shoveling in of oatmeal cookies. But, after the Christmas goodies were over and January rolled around, I had lost five pounds. Five pounds! Halleluiah, the weight was just going to fall off because I wasn't stuffing my face with pumpkin roll, right? Wrong. I leveled off quickly and still continued my love affair with raw cookie dough.
But there is just something about spring....Knowing that you are getting ready to be hot and knowing that you have to wear shorts or you will melt. And trying on your first pair of shorts of the season. I remember looking down at my legs and realizing that even the front part of my shins (down the bone I tell ya!) had fat dimples. Good grief.
So, I knew then. I knew that it was time. Time to do something. Time to start taking care of myself without the mommy guilt seeping in. Time to move, time to groove, etc. Time to come up with an effective exercise plan that will fit into stay-at-home mommyness.
I have to say I have never exactly been what you would call athletic. I played outside when I was a little girl and rode my bike a lot. My mother always weighed 102 pounds, so I can safely say that she really had no reason to exercise or worry about poundage. Our family had an aversion to sports....It was called the "I don't really want to pay for this or take you there" aversion. The best I can remember about my childhood foray into sports was trying out for cheerleading in third grade...Let's see, I was the only girl in the 45 tryouts who could not do a cartwheel. And there was the fourth grade basketball team which to date has been my one and only organized sports experience.
That basketball team thing was a hoot. My dad was proud....Until he realized half-way through the season that he was carting me to the elementary school so that I could sit on the bench in every game. Bless his heart, I do remember that I made one basket during the whole season. It was during a practice, so it wasn't even in a game. But that did not stop him from grinning at me cheshire style while he was driving me home. I still remember sitting in the back seat of the car and him turning around to say "Em, that was real good. Real good."
Middle school was a nightmare sports wise. PE was a horrific experience. Same for high school. I remember playing dodge ball when I was a junior and thinking "if I can't do this by now....."
But lack of sportific ability wanes in college. There are other pursuits and people don't really care if you can't serve the volleyball. That is the time that I just revelled in the fact that I didn't have to do anything physical for 4 years....except that darn PE credit again. One semester of badminton. Which I made a C- in by the way. Lowest grade of my college career.
There is a point in our adult life where being athletic kinda goes by the wayside....and it all becomes about 'working out'. People ask each other "Do you work out?" All the old sports heros of yesteryear are on the treadmill with everybody else. So, adulthood brings a more even playing field in that respect. At least to me!
So, what were my options? Going to the gym and elipticalling myself to thin, or doing the weight machines that I can never figure out how to use correctly. Or I could work out to my superduper workout DVD's in front of the TV downstairs while trying not to slip on toys or kick my children in the face. Or I could run....
I chose running. The first thing I did was download my training schedule off the internet. 'From Couch Potato to 5K' it was called. The couch potato part was certainly appropriate. My friend Gina and I made a pact that we really would run the Race for Cure in October......and I was off and running. Ha! Well, I was actually more like off and jogging for 30 second increments.
There were some rough days ahead. There were days when I really wondered what the heck I was doing....There were days when my legs and my feet and my back hurt so bad that I took 3 ibuprofen instead of the 2 that the bottle recommends. There were days when I barfed, days when I would almost pass out, and my favorite...the days when I really did feel like I was going to have a heart attack because that little vein in my shoulder was pulsing and I felt pain down my arm.
I made my goal...And not too shabbily either. I ran two 5K's in October. Ran both races at about a 10-minute mile pace. I have to say that I was really proud of myself for making a goal and sticking to it. And I was proud of myself for another reason too.....I can actually do something physical that most other people can't do. For the first time in my life. And I am proud of myself that even though my races are over and it is cold outside, I am still running.
Running itself is a beautiful thing. It is a mental exercise as well as a physical one. Some runs are so hard it feels like you have a snow plow tied to your back. Other runs, like my run tonight, are spectacular.....energy courses through your veins and you really do feel like you can run like the wind.
Am I really running like the wind? Absolutely not. And in all actuality, I am probably more jogging than running. But this girl feels better and is 20 pounds lighter than the pumpkin roll Christmas of last year. Sure, I could be upset that technically I am probably still considered clinically obese by health insurance standards (just ask my husband...he just changed jobs and is downstairs wrestling with health insurance papers right now!) but I am not going to let that get me down. I am just going to keep running. Running like the wind.