As some of you may know, my birthday is coming up in June and I will be 30! To commemorate the milestone, I considered a few options: walk along the Great Wall of China, ride a hot air balloon, create a signature cupcake recipe and then I made the big decision: I’m running a half marathon!
You may recall in October that Jonathan and I had a golden and delightful date day at Greenlake. We also visited Super Jock and Jill where we were fitted with running shoes. Let me tell you, those shoes have made quite the difference! We sort of started running in October but the rain and dark and snow prevented us from training in earnest. Jonathan’s knee started bothering him in January, so I thought I was up a creek with no paddle/running buddy. My brother stepped in and said he’d run the race with me! YAY! Thanks Erik! I owe you!
Despite my obvious enthusiasm at the start, running was not fun. Running has never been fun for me (“what was I thinking?!?” went through my head often). It is kind of a pain, actually. Even in seventh grade on mile day in P.E., with Mr. Nilson yelling at us as we raced around the track, the whole of my 95lb body rejected the entire event. My limbs did not cooperate with each other and it made for a horrible start to the day. I disliked Mr. Nilson and his stupid TA (Ryan?) for standing there and yelling at me and then having us run up the stinking Kilo hill. It was more than a mile at that point and clearly beyond what any mentally competent individual would agree to subject herself to for one hour. Given that there are no chances to opt out of anything in seventh grade P.E., I did it. And I resented Mr. Nilson….until February when suddenly I found it-my stride. Really, it was sudden. When I started running, I didn’t think I could run a mile. My knees hurt after just a short bit of running and I started thinking back to seventh grade again. Slowly and surely I ran in increments-one minute running followed by two minutes of walking, then two minutes running one minute walking and building until I ran a whole mile. Then I ran two miles. Last week I logged a total of 12 miles. I still think that running 13.1 miles in one day will be a challenge, but I’m pretty excited!
Since I have no photos of what I look like while I run, I will leave you with this image as inspiration!
Don’t worry, 30 isn’t so bad. The rest of us have survived it so far.
I loved your PE story and even though mine was deadman’s hill by Totem, I still remember those wonderful 7th grade PE times.
Go for it, Kelly!! Because I can’t run. Hate it. Never tried. However, I also wanted my thirtieth birthday to pass by as quickly as possible without thinking about it. I didn’t want to celebrate it. So kudos to you!