My Running Journey

I have a goal, a dream, a vision or a bucket list item. I want to run in the New York City Marathon. Crazy? Yes! Doable? I sure hope so! OK, how do I make it so I can cross this item off of my list? Good question. I start with a less lofty goal, I decide to run an half marathon. Where better to do this than in Nashville? Why, you ask? Ah, my sister lives there, so I think, why not! Now, mind you that I have never run more than 5 miles continuously at any given time in my life; and that happened when I was in cross country, in HIGH SCHOOL. Oh, dear Lord, what was I thinking? I can do this, I see a 300 lb man on The Biggest Loser do a 5K...Surely, I can run 13.1 miles. And lose some weight while doing so.

I looked up a popular training method for running a 5K, it's the Couch to 5K, I'll be running 3.1 miles in 2 months. Fantastic. Then I will be doing the Marathon Rookie 10 week training method. No problem!

My first day of training was on May 4Th. The day we gave sweet Daisy away. Running was therapeutic. I could channel my emotions into that run. I needed that pain to help my motivation, and I completed the workout. What a huge sense of accomplishment that I felt. "I can do this", I thought proudly to myself. And so I continue on with my training. Last night I started week 3 of the program. Oh my, running on a treadmill, it has it's pros and cons. The pros, you can see how far you've gone and how fast you're going. The cons, you can see how far you haven't gone and how slow you're going. I kept looking at that darn distance reader, timer and speedometer...and then reality started to set in; I need to run at least 6 miles per hour in order to finish an half marathon in just over 2 hours. I was running 4.4 miles per hour, when I wasn't walking. But, I must remind myself that I have only just begun. I have to remind myself that I will eventually be able to run longer, farther and faster. I have to remind myself that I can do this...