She Runs: Day 1

I decided to get a real running coach.  Okay, no -- well, sort of.  One of our small group members is a runner, and so I begged him to take me on as his pupil.  My husband is a runner, but I know how to work around him. I thought it would be better to have someone more emotionally detached.

At first Coach Sam thought I should get someone else from our church.  This woman runs marathons . . . you know, before breakfast.  I think she gave birth to her fourth child and then hit the trail the same day.  She is a serious, serious runner.  After I laughed in Coach Sam's face over this suggestion ("I need to run with the fat mommies, Sam!!), he admitted he'd tried to run with her once.  Once.

Coach Sam sent me my first week's assignment last Friday and I laughed out loud.  On my first day, I was to run a mile.  HA!  A mile.  Right.  I've never been able to run two blocks.  In the one and only 5K I have ever actually entered when I was 20 years old and in the prime of my youth, I was beat by a lady who walked the route. No, that was a joke.  Run a mile.

But you know . . . somewhere between all the yoga, Pilates, low impact, high impact, blah, blah, blah, I must have gained some strength.

"I will run as far as the store and then I can walk,"  I thought.  But when I got to the store . . .

"I will run as far as the lake and then I can walk," but when I got to the lake . . .

"Oh, look.  My turn around point isn't that far.  I will turn around and then I can walk."  And then . . .

"Well, it's all gravy now.  I'll just run as far as I like and then I will walk."  But when I was ready to walk, it was only two more blocks.

So, I will be darned but I ran the whole way.  No one was more surprised than I.  So, it's only day 1, but I feel sort of hopeful.  Maybe this is the year I become a runner.