I have always tended to the well... lazy side. If it was too much work, maybe it wasn't worth doing. (Ask my mom). Funny thing is, I have a great work ethic. Go figure.
As far as taking care of myself, I would get to it eventually. I could see where I wanted to be and I pictured it happening someday.
I was a mom with a 9 year old, 7 year old and 3 year old. I wasn't getting any trimmer on my own. I had done softball leagues in the past but let's all admit this right now. Softball leagues on their own are not a tremendous weight loss plan. I love the sport, but it wasn't helping me to improve my physicality.
A little background: never having been physical I was in awe of people who could run. I thought it was the most challenging sport out there. To go and sustain a run for over a minute? And there are people crazy enough to do it for 3.1 miles, 6.2 miles, 13.1 miles and even 26.2 miles! Do you know how long those distances take? Well, depending on your fitness, the shortest can take anywhere from 15 minutes (really fit) to an hour (just getting started!). But I digress.
So here I was, unfit and not doing a thing to change that. Enter my friend Beth. Beth mentions casually that she is taking a running class. To which my husband, Don, and I met with a snicker. "Wait, you're paying someone to teach you how to run?!? Couldn't you just go outside and well, RUN?" Time passes and eventually I ask "so, what do you do?" She told me about the class that our local running store (Up and Running in Dayton) and I started to think about it. Every other time I tried running on my own I gave up. It was too hard, I couldn't breathe. Who wants to run anyway? After a little consideration, I decided to enroll in the class during the next session.
That was June of 2010. I am cheap. The kind of cheap that once I lay down my $50 to learn how to run you better believe that I am there in class every time putting forth a good effort. It was humbling. You think "I am going to run" and you learn that maybe when you start running you have to go REALLY slow to maintain it even for a minute. And you picture yourself flying down the road, the envy of all those around you because you are just that talented. But that is just a picture in your mind. And you learn. You learn how to stretch 1 minute to 2. Eventually you make it 4 whole minutes with just 2 minute walk breaks between.
The last class the coaches told us we were free to try running the whole time, the whole distance of the path we took on our Tuesday night class. I attempted to run the entire thing and do you know what? I did it. I was so happy I could have cried. I was so overwhelmed with what I had accomplished that I wanted to sing it to everyone I passed. 'Hey did you know that I ran the WHOLE distance?' And we had yet to run our graduation 5K. I was worried going in whether I should do the race in intervals or try to run the whole distance. With the support of some of my classmates, I decided to try to run the whole thing. I was slow as molasses, but I did it. We had a motto in our class "We are doing it" and we did. I was lucky to meet my best runner girls in that class. We are still running together today.
Lastly, I owe a great big Thank You to Beth. You lit the fire that changed my life.
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