Around the time I started going I had a few friends that started to go on a big gym/health kick a few months before. They were pretty happy with their results, and understandably promoting their new lifestyle. Also going on in the beginning of 2012 I somehow managed to come through and defy odds of a random personal goal I set for myself: no hamburgers or pizza for a 100 days. I lost a little bit of weight, not too much from that stretch and wanted to do more to keep it off and then some, so combining that with the persistent nudging from a few friends led to me enrolling in the gym a little over a year ago.
I knew I wanted to focus on cardio and trying condition myself to long runs from the get go. I also knew I had no conditioning whatsoever for running. Smart, I know. I think a couple of times the previous year I only managed to run a block before getting gassed. So I started slow, primarily walking for ten minute stretches on the treadmill, with only thirty seconds of running in the middle, and I would dread those thirty seconds every single time like I dread watching a Transformers movie. After a few workouts, I would step it up to 45 seconds of running, and after a few more, a whole freaking minute of nonstop running.
You get the idea, these were babysteps, but freaking huge steps for me. Come summertime last year once it got nice enough outside, I was going out on near one mile runs. Then I moved across town in May and had a plethora of new running options available to me on the other side of town. Within a few weeks, I plotted myself a new mile and a half stretch I got comfortable to running and stuck with that route for about a month until I got crazy ambitious one day and tried a new route that was triple what I was use to at that point, nearly three and a half miles! Then I made the terrible mistake to do my first run on that route nonstop with no breaks. I have no idea how, but I found the willpower to pull it off, but I was really sore and hurting for the next few days because of it.
I persevered however and stuck with that route, with two well timed breaks, which eventually transitioned into one break, and by the end of the summer I made a few tweaks to that route where it went from three and half miles to four and a quarter. At this point however, that ever so familiar North Dakota winter started to reemerge and it was back to running indoors on the treadmill. I admire all the winter runners out there, but I absolutely dread slipping and wiping out on the ice, I took three tumbles doing regular summer running last year so I do not want to imagine my odds come winter time.
A few months back when I started to run again on the treadmill, I got into this nasty habit of stepping up my running almost every other run. Be it upping my speed just .1 mph or an extra minute in the entire run. The results have been dramatic, I have nearly doubled the amount I conditioned myself from running in three months from four and a half miles to eight and a half and counting. This led to me giving a lot of serious thought into running a half marathon about a month ago, and as a serious goal to push myself to.
A big part of me was afraid to sign up for it. "Maybe I should just be content on doing a 5k or 10k." But I still had this huge part of my conscience nagging at me for not doing any sports in high school, and felt I was capable of doing more. I have come a long way this past year, and as much as I hate to admit it, I actually ENJOY running now. Somehow I found it quite liberating the longer the duration. I just feel that not only completing the race, but trying my absolute best to practice for it and perform well in this half marathon would be the quintessential exclamation point on what I have worked towards this past year. I know I am getting in over my head and there are no doubt many more experienced and veteran runners that will be competing, but rest assured I will be giving 110% out there.
So, on Christmas day a few weeks ago I ended up buying myself the present of registering to run in the Fargo half marathon come this May. A half marathon is just over 13 miles, I still have another four and a half miles to condition myself for. A week ago I did something else I fear I may end up having disastrous results. I was informed by my friend Justine of the annual "Frozen Feat" 5k/10k race about a month out from now right in Grand Forks. As noted above, I am petrified of wiping out in the winter, and I am just not too keen on running in freezing temperatures either. I initially laughed off the Frozen Feat, but then my aforementioned conscience kept nagging at me that this would be a great way to warm up for the half marathon and experience that race day atmosphere whether it is 35 or 80 degrees out.
So against all my better judgment I ended up signing up for the Frozen Feat a few days ago and come next payday am going to make a trip down to Scheels to pick up some outdoor running gear I have been researching.
This is where I stand right now working towards running a half marathon, expect another blog updating this resolution around the time of the Frozen Feat race a month from now and if I managed to survive it unscathed.
Photo credit - Red River Runners Club Facebook Page
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