I took me a while, but I got up to three miles on pavement in the dark and cold.
Less than a week before the April race, I got a stomach bug. Still wiped out on race day, I ran some and walked some. It was hot, it was daylight, and I was weak. I found I wasn't up for running after that.
Bounce ahead a few years to when Brad and I acquired our treadmill, and I acquired another decade. I decided last summer, 2010, to try running. I used the Couch to 5K program, got to 5K, and then school got the better of me.
Disgusted with my couch potato life, I decided this summer to again do the C25K program, or at least a version of it, with the date of October 2nd in my head. A run/walk to benefit the Histiocytosis Foundation. One of our students has just started his fifth remission year, free of this cancer like disease.
Here's what I learned yesterday. Running on a treadmill watching lame, distracting TV is much easier than running on hard pavement hopping curbs, assessing tilted walkways, avoiding walkers, and being grossed out by spit bombs. My shins hurt before I reached half a mile. Though I used to love running in the cold, I hadn't yet run anywhere but my basement, and the 40 degree morning hurt my lungs.
Verdict? My body wasn't ready. I walked much more than I ran. I walked about as fast as I run.
I am not a runner yet.
Solution? Keep working on the treadmill. Do some real rope jumping (on cement). Run outside on weekend mornings in the daytime until the snow falls (ours is not a safe neighborhood to run through in the dark--mostly due to traffic). Sign up for another 5K.
I have a healthy body. It's essential to push.
