Week 1 is DONE!

As I said I would, I started a half marathon training program and the last day of week one was a four mile run-comfortable pace. The funny thing about running at a comfortable pace-is for me, it would be not running at all.

But thats not the point of this story. This story is about change, taking control of what has gotten out of control and doing something for me. I knew there would be long runs in this program, I have done it before and dreaded it before and this would be my longest run in over a year-maybe two.

Most days I work from home, so getting accessibility to the track across the street can be easy and the timing is flexible. On this day, I had to go downtown for meetings-which since I only have to make the trip 2-3 times a week I would never complain about. My meetings were all afternoon, and I didn’t get home until 5:30pm, which is normal for most people, and late for me. I felt like a typical employee, tired, mentally drained-probably 1/2 as tired as Greg feels when he gets home from a day of talking to people and treating them all day.

It was overcast, looked like it might rain, and I was hungry-hey I had started seriously working out this week-my hunger was definitely present! So I set myself up to fail, I accepted in that moment no way in hell was I going to do this run. I took a quick shower since I was sweaty from running around all afternoon-in heels, and made a trader joes frozen mac and cheese-so creamy, cheesy, delicious,s heavy, unhealthy annnnnd carb-coma. I let myself digest for 20 minutes and it was only 6:30. The sun started to shine again, I was running out of excuses as to why I was giving up on my first week!

Charged my phone, put on gym clothes, sneakers, my #roosport that I keep my keys in and I headed out the door. 4 MILES! It was already daunting me, I knew that meant 40-50 minutes of running, of being tired and of wanting to give up. I typically walk to the track and execute my run once I get to the gate, but 4 miles of running in circles might drive me nuts! I started running at the college sign, which worked out to be a full mile to track-there were a few hills-but I did it, and didn’t die.

By the time I arrived at the track there were a few regulars I have started to notice, which despite not knowing each other or even speaking-its like were are in it together. By the time I made it through 2 miles, I only had half left! I was already getting tired, but I had to finish, I felt committed. I started to feel less committed when the sun started to go down. The number of people at the track started to dwindle, so it was me, a gentleman in his 40’s-60’s, and what I was hoping was his teenage son kind of creeping in the corner of the bleachers. Sunset where I live has been about 8:20-8:40pm the past few weeks and it was about 8:20 and I still had a full mile and at my 4 mile pace I was taking the chance of being alone or it just being myself and the bleacher kid-which made me pretty uncomfortable. I got to 3.5 miles grabbed my water bottle and decided to make part of my journey home the rest of my run. I didn’t want to, because that meant the last part of my run would be up hill, but…. safety first!!

I managed to finish my run in under 50 minutes, and still had a half mile walk back to the apartment to cool down-sun still not set.