Back in the habit

Have you guessed it yet?  Today, I RAN!  I’ve been thinking about it lately since so many of you are enjoying it.  When I first met Dan I was training for the Cherry Blossom 10-miler.  At the time my office would enter the race as a team and they accepted me on their team even though I totally dragged down the average!
 
I used my upcoming race as a way to bond with Dan, well sorta.  We were in the new relationship phase. I was also gaining more weight than I would have liked to admit.  Dan was also injured at the time so my motivation to prepare for the race waned.  I started freaking out as race day approached.  I was at my heaviest weight ever and hadn’t trained, but I couldn’t back out because I was trying to impress my new professional athlete boyfriend. 

Race morning came and I freaked out, but I still went through with it ONLY because I wanted to impress Dan.  Early on in the “race” I met up with another women that was walking and she and I walked (sometimes sorta ran) the whole 10 miles.  I can say that I didn’t come in last; there were at least three people behind me (I just checked and there were about 50 people behind me)!  I should also note that there are over 10,000 runners in the race.
 
That experience was not the best.  Soon after that I started my low carb diet and joined a gym where I took walks, walked on the treadmill and used the bike and elliptical.  I refused to run.  I had no desire to run. I hated running.
 
This is why it was weird when I wanted to run and I kept wanting to run.  This morning we woke up super early so Dan could give a nutrition presentation to the Runner’s Edge running group, and I saw this huge group of people of all ages/sizes/speeds.  Seeing that further inspired me to get off my duff and try to run.

And so I did.  For 1.4 miles.  Not long, not far, but I didn’t HATE it!  I actually kinda enjoyed it.  I went so slowly that it wasn’t painful.  I want to go again.  Slowly.  But I want to go. I think I might try to run the entire turkey trot, even if I go so slowly.  I did make Dan promise to not abandon me this time.  But that’s a story for another time!
(food today-pumpkin bread, oven fries, salt and pepper chicken and  mushroom risotto)

Happy Saturday!