I've always hated running.... but now...
its all about the right motivation
Diana IMd me on Monday and said that she'd like to run a half-marathon in October and asked if I'd run it with her. I've never liked running. All growing up, I played organized sports and it was used as a punishment: Miss a free throw -- run; Strike out -- run; Overthrow -- run. WHY would anyone ever want to run on their own initiative?
... I guess I'm finding out. Its all about looking at it from a different light. About a year and a half ago, Mendra came home and said "We're starting Weight Watchers tonight." It was great for me -- it wasn't something I was thinking about and putting off and hemming and hawing about... it was "here -- lets do this" so I did. And I did great at it. I'm feeling the same about this new running-venture.
After I told Di I'd do it, I immediately emailed Bob Bickel. I've known Bob the last 5 or 6 years from Bluestone Software, HP and now JBoss. Bob's quite the runner, he's done marathons and is involved with the Moorestown Cross Country team. Bob kicks ass. Within hours of telling him that Di and I wanted to do a half-marathon, he emailed me a training schedule. Today I did my second run, I'm sore, but I'm excited.
Things I learned from today's run in Salt Lake:
- just because you've worked through your asthma at sea level, doesn't mean it won't come back at 4500 feet
- there's less oxygen up here
- you don't sweat as much in a desert :-D
- hills are hard
So far I've run 1.5 miles on Tuesday and 1.75 miles today. I'll hit 2 miles on Saturday. I'm excited to see how well I keep up with this. Thanks for getting me started Di.