Running

I am not a runner by nature. When I work out, I like to walk, do the eliptical, I loved my p90x videos, but running has never been my thing. The only time I enjoyed it was when I was trying to get in shape after I had Landon. After a short while, I hurt so bad (knees, shins, hips), that I could hardly walk. I gave up.

For some reason, I have been dreaming about me running for the last few months. I run like a gazelle when I dream. I enjoy being outside, I enjoy the idea of the hard work, I feel no pain (in my dreams, I mean), but reality and dreams tend to be polar opposites.

Why the rant about running? I let my friends rope me into doing one of these Ragnar relay races. They all convinced me I could do it. They said, "you're a natural athlete", "it'll be easy for you", etc., etc. Well, so far... they lied. I have had a hard time getting motivated to get out and run. The burn in my lungs alone is enough to make me quit. But, trying to find time on top of normal daily things, to do something that brings me such pain, is easy to put off. It doesn't help that we are having some arctic storm the last two weeks (that's what it feels like to this AZ girl!) Until today, that is. Today we ran as a group. 9 of the 12 runners got together at 7am and ran almost 4 miles. Well, everyone but me ran that far. I walked and ran, since today was only my 4th day of training and I am still pretty much DYING! But there is something about being with a group like that, all of them took turns keeping my pace, walking when I did, as to not leave me behind or make me feel like the dud of the group. Instead, they cheered me on, told me how awesome I did and never once made me feel like an imposition for being SO incredibly sLoW.

I'm not sure how ling it's going to take me to get to where I can even run for 20 minutes without having to take a walk break, but for now I'm glad I'm committed. It was mostly to get back into shape after having Grey, since I haven't done one thing since I had him. I hope that I can figure out how to keep it up, but even if I walk some during the race (which I'm not planning on!), I think that the experience is going to be one to remember.