A Few Surprises Along the Way

So I've only been "training" for 5 days but I feel pretty great.

However, I have caught a cold and am afraid of pushing myself at the risk of staying sick which would make training even MORE difficult...


Since today I'm scheduled to walk as part of my training (I'll pick up running tomorrow) I chose tonight to stay on the couch, go to bed early, and read some runners' blogs. One in particular I read for a LONG time: RUN FASTER MOMMY!

Now granted, I don't have kids. But her blog was pretty inspirational. She runs marathons. Yup, more than one!! And here I am struggling with my "Walk 3.5 minutes, Run 1.5 minutes, for 30 minutes" intervals. Seriously?!

And I don't know about you, but I thought a 10 min/mile was GOOD. But apparently in the Runner's World (imaginative, not the magazine), some runners have a leisurely pace or "in the zone" at around 7 min/ mile! Are you kidding me?

So I came to the conclusion that she's CRAZY. Inspirational. But CRAZY. Until I came across other runners' blogs. They are RUNNING MACHINES!!

As I read more and more about training and long runs (11 miles? YIKES!!) and shoes and arm warmers (seriously?) and stopped to catch my breath I realized...

I want to be a runner so fricken bad. Win all these race medals I've never had. I want to be on the cover of a Runner's magazine.... OK, maybe not quite.

But I got determined. I was surprised to find that a lot of people run faster than a 10 min/mile. Surprised that there are more to running shoes than "cushiony" and "cute". and that there are these cool looking things called arm warmers...


I'm inspired. Ready to go. I can only hope there are a few more pleasant surprises along the way.